THE 



POWERS, DUTIES 



AND 



LIABILITIES 



OF 



TOWNS AND TOWN OFFICERS 



IN MASSACHUSETTS. 



BY 



/ 



WILLIAM M. SEAVEY, 



OF THE SUFFOLK BAR 





BOSTON: 
LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY. 

r 1893. 






Copyright, 1893, 
By Little, Brown, and Company. 



1 i -3 <o£(>Y 



WLnibmity Press: 

John Wilson and Son, Cambridge, U. S. A. 



PREFACE. 



In the present work the author has endeavored to 
select from the statutes of Massachusetts all the pro- 
visions which relate to the powers and duties of towns 
and of town officers in this Commonwealth. To these 
have been added, wherever they tended to make the 
meaning and intent of the statutes clearer, the latest 
decided cases from the reports of the Massachusetts 
Supreme Judicial Court, and a selection of appropriate 
forms and rules. 

Although the form of the statutes has, in the main, 
been preserved, yet where they contained superfluous 
matter, or matter not relating to the subject of towns, 
and where this could be done without altering their 
meaning, abridgments have been made. 

For convenience of reference, and because many 
statutes and parts of statutes have been grouped to- 
gether under the same headings, the paragraphs in the 
book have been numbered consecutively, with proper 
references to denote the corresponding chapters and 
sections of the statutes referred to. 



IV PREFACE. 

It has been thought best to give the Election Act 
of 1893, and the Act of the same year relative to the 
duties of town officers, nearly in full so far as they 
relate to the subjects treated of in the book, as these 
Acts codify the previous legislation on those subjects. 

It has been intended to make the index to the book 
so full and complete that the reader may readily find 
the provisions relating to any of the principal sub- 
jects referred to. 

The author has availed himself freely of matter 
contained in Herrick's Town Officer, but all of the 
matter which has been made use of has been verified 
and thoroughly revised. 

W. M. S. 

Boston, August, 1893. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



(the figures refer to the pages.) 



CHAPTER I. 
GENERAL POWERS AND DUTIES OF TOWNS. 

PAGE 

The Nature of a Town 1 

Powers and Duties of Towns 2 

(a) In General 2 

(b) Town and City Libraries 17 

(c) The Power of Towns to Manufacture Gas and Electricity . . 19 

(d) Town Subscriptions to Railroads 28 

(e) Municipal Indebtedness 30 

Cemeteries and Burials 36 

Forests and Parks 38 

Payment of State Aid 38 

Abuse of Corporate Power by Towns 44 

Inspection of Buildings 44 

CHAPTER II. 

ELECTIONS AND TOWN MEETINGS. 

General Provisions 46 

Qualification and Registration of Voters 48 

(a) Assessment of Poll Taxes and Lists of Persons Assessed . . 49 

(b) Registrars of Voters 52 

(c) Registration of Voters 55 

(d) Voting Lists 62 

Nomination of Candidates 65 



VI TABLE OF CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

Preparations for Voting 71 

(a) Voting Precincts . 71 

(b) Election Officers 73 

(c) Voting Places 77 

(d) Election Apparatus and Blanks 78 

(e) Preparation and Form of Ballots 80 

(f) Information to Voters 84 

(g) Delivery of Ballots 85 

Conduct of Elections and Method of Voting 87 

(a) Calling of Elections 87 

(b) Conduct of Elections 88 

(c) Manner of Voting 91 

(d) Counting of Votes 95 

(e) Certificates of Election 99 

(f) Recounts of Votes 104 

Officers to be Voted for at State Elections 106 

Election of Town Officers 109 

(a) Failures to Elect and Vacancies 120 

(b) Ballots may be Provided at the Expense of the Town . . .124 

Town Meetings 125 



CHAPTER III. 

MODERATORS AND THEIR DUTIES 128 

CHAPTER IV. 

TOWN CLERKS AND THEIR DUTIES. 

In General 138 

Town Records 143 

Registry and Returns of Births, Marriages and Deaths 145 

Dogs 151 

Lost Goods, Stray Beasts and Unclaimed Property . . . 153 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. Vli 

CHAPTER V. 

SELECTMEN, THEIR POWERS AND DUTIES. 

PAGE 

In General 155 

Certain Licenses Granted by Selectmen , . 163 

(a) Innholders and Common Victuallers 163 

(b) Intelligence Offices . , 165 

(c) Junk, Old Metals and Second-hand Articles 165 

(d) Pawnbrokers 166 

(e) Stables 166 

(f) Steam Engines, Furnaces, and Boilers 167 

(g) Explosive Compounds 169 

(h) Billiard Tables and Bowling Alleys 170 

(i) Theatrical Exhibitions and Public Shows . . .- . . . . 171 

(j) Fishing Associations 171 

(k) Race-Grounds and Trotting -Parks 171 

(1) Steamboats on Inland Waters , .... 171 

(m) Skating Rinks and Picnic Groves 172 

Duties of Selectmen with Regard to Railroads .... 172 

(a) Fixing of the Route 172 

(b) Examination of Condition of Road 173 

(c) Railroad Police 1 74 

Auctioneers, Hawkers and Pedlers 174 

(a) Auctioneers 174 

(b) Hawkers and Pedlers 175 

Fires, Fire Departments and Fire Districts 176 

(a) Extinguishment of Fires 176 

(b) Forest Firewards 178 

(c) Enginemen and Hosemen 179 

(d) Fire Departments , 182 

(e) Fire Districts 184 

(f) Fire Inquests 188 

Offences Against the Public Peace 190 

The Suppression of Common Nuisances 190 

Jurors 192 

Dogs 196 



Vlll TABLE OF CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER VI. 
ASSESSORS OF TAXES. 

PAGE 

Assessment of Taxes 201 

(a) Assessors 201 

(b) Manner of Assessing Taxes ...; 202 

(c) Notices and Lists 204 

(d) Collector's List and Warrant 216 

(e) Discount and Interest on Taxes 218 

(f) Abatements 219 

(g) Omitted Assessments 223 

(h) Reassessment of Taxes 223 

(i) Apportionment of Taxes on Real Estate Subsequently 

Divided 224 

(j) Additional Duties of Assessors 224 

(k) Responsibility and Compensation of Assessors 227 

Persons and Property Subject to Taxation, and where 

Taxable 228 

(a) Persons and Property Taxable 228 

(b) Property and Persons Exempted from Taxation . . . , . 231 

(c) Where Polls and Property shall be Assessed 236 

(d) Taxation of Bank Shares 246 

CHAPTER VII. 
OVERSEERS OF THE POOR. 

The Care and Support of Paupers 250 

(a) Town Paupers 250 

(b) State Paupers 263 

(c) Lunatics 265 

(d) Masters, Apprentices and Servants 266 

The Settlement of Paupers 268 

Workhouses and Almshouses 276 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. IX 

CHAPTER VIII. 
SURVEYORS OF HIGHWAYS. 

PAGE 

Highways and Town Ways 280 

(a) Surveyors and Repairs 280 

(b) Boundaries of Highways 286 

(c) Guide-Posts 287 

Laying out and Discontinuance of Ways 288 

(a) Town and Private Ways 288 

(b) Footways . 297 

(c) Rights of Landowner when Possession is not Taken or Actual 

Notice Given 297 

(d) Dedication of Ways 297 

(e) Ascertaining Location 298 

(f) Erection of Monuments 298 

(g) Taking of Earth and Gravel 299 

Sewers, Drains and Sidewalks 299 

(a) Sewers and Drains 299 

(b) Sidewalks 303 

(c) Apportionment of Sewer and Sidewalk Assessments . . . 304 

Betterments 304 

Street Railways 307 

(a) Construction and Use of Tracks 307 

(b) Operation of Road, Streets, etc 309 

Telegraph Companies 310 

CHAPTER IX. 
SCHOOL COMMITTEES AND PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 

(a) In General 312 

(b) Superintendents oj Public Schools 322 

(c) Schoolhouses 323 

School Fund . . 324 

School Registers and Returns . 326 

Attendance of Children in the Schools 330 

Truant Children and Absentees from School 333 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER X. 

PAGE 

COLLECTORS OF TAXES 335 

(a) Collection by Distress 340 

(b) By Imprisonment 341 

(c) By Suit or Distress 343 

(d) By Sale or Taking of Real Estate 344 

(e) Proceedings when Tax Title is Deemed Invalid 356 

(f) Miscellaneous Provisions 357 

■ 
CHAPTER XI. 

TOWN TREASURERS 379 



CHAPTER XII. 

CONSTABLES AND THEIR DUTIES 382 

CHAPTER XIII. 
BOARDS OF HEALTH. 

(a) Town Boards 388 

(b) Nuisances, Contagion, etc 389 

(c) Vaccination 398 

(d) Lying-in Hospitals 399 

(e) Protection of Infants 400 

(f) Quarantine 401 

(g) Hospitals and Dangerous Diseases' 402 

(h) Offensive Trades 406 

(i) Pollution of Rivers and Sources of Water Supply .... 409 

Cemeteries and Burials 411 

Diseased Cattle 413 

CHAPTER XIV. 

FENCE VIEWERS .... 417 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. XI 

CHAPTER XV. 
FIELD DRIVERS AND POUND KEEPERS. 



PAGE 



Field Drivers 427 

Pound Keepers 429 

CHAPTER XVI. 
SEALERS OF WEIGHTS AND MEASURES 435 

CHAPTER XVII. 
THE REGULATION OF FISHERIES 443 

CHAPTER XVIII. 

THE MILITIA LAW IN ITS RELATION TO TOWNS. 

(a) Persons Subject to Military Duty 448 

(b) The Enrolment of Persons Subject to Military Duty ..... 450 
(c^ Calling out and Organizing the Enrolled Militia for Active 

Duty 450 

(d) Armories 452 

(e) Tours of Duty, Inspection and Drills 454 



INDEX 459 



TABLE OF CASES. 



(The 


figures refer to the pages. ) 




Adams v. Mills 




345 


Braintree Water Supply 


Co. v. 


Agawam v. Hampden 




2 


Braintree 


127 


Agawam Bank v. South Hadley 


31 


Bridgewater v. Plymouth 


272 


Aldrich v. Aldrich 




380 


v. Wareham 


273 


Alexander v. Pitts 




346 


Briggs v. Murdock 


138 


Alger v. Pool 




419 


Brockton v. Uxbridge 


272, 273 


Allen v. Gardner 




282 


Brown v. Murdock 


403 


v. Marion 




5 


Bruce v. White 


428 


v. Taunton 




5 


Bulkely v. Williamstown 


237 


Alter v. Dodge 




167 


Butler v. Hubbard 


267 


Amherst v. Shelburne 




254 


v. Stark 


238 


Anthony v. Anthony 




430 


Byron v. Crippen 


430 


Attleborough v. Mansfield 




254 






Attorney-General v. Crocker 


128 


, 130 


Carr v. Berkeley 
Carver u. Taunton 


292 
254 


Baker v Alien 




228 


Cavanaugh v. Boston 


389 


Bank of Commerce v, New 


Bed 




Charlestown v. County Commis- 


ford 




221 


sioners 


221 


Bank v. South Hadley 




31 


v. Gardner 


319 


Barker v. Watertovvn 




246 


Chase v. Lowell 


284 


Barnard v Graves 


216 


, 340 


Cheever v. Merritt 


343 


Barnes v. Boardman 




345 


Cheshire v. Howland 


219 


Batchelder v. Salem 




319 


Chicopee v. Wbately 


270 


Bates v. Boston 




220 


Choate v. Rochester 


269 


v. Westborough 




300 


Clark v. Easton 


282 


Bay State Brick Co. v. Foster 280, 284 


v. Russell 


281 


Bean v. Hyde Park 




156 


Cleverly v. Fowle 


432 


Beard v. Boston 




266 


Coffin v. Field 


432 


Bellingham v. West Boylston 




271 


Colerain v. Bell 


335 


Bemis v. Aldermen of Boston 




241 


Collins v. Holyoke 


301 


v Caldwell 




212 


v. Waltham 


291 


Benjamin v. Wheeler 




280 


Commonwealth v. Alden 


390, 391 


Benton v. Brookhne 


305 


306 


v. Besse 


195 


Berlin v. Bolton 




270 


v. Boston 


311 


Blackstone v. County Commis- 




v. Boston & Albany R. 


R Co. 290 


sioners 




289 


v. Brown 


126 


Blackstone Manufacturing Co. v. 




v. Cambridge 


290 


Blackstone 




241 


v. Cheney 


385 


Blanchard v. Ayer 




283 


v. Cushing 


117 


Bliss v. Deerfield 




290 


v. Deerfield 


281 


Boston v. Mount Washington 




272 


v. Goodrich 


412 


v Shaw 




8 


v. Heffron 


2 


Boston & Albany R. R v. Boston 


295 


v. Higgins 


117 


Boston & Maine R. R. v. Cam- 




v. Manimon 


445 


bridge 




235 


v. Martin 


117 


Boston Loan Co. v. Boston 




241 


v. Perry 


191 


Bowley v. Walker 




290 


v. Roxbury 


1 


Boylston v. Clinton 




269 


v. Turner 


8 



XIV 



TABLE OF CASES. 



Commonwealth v. Wentworth 


126, 




155, 280 


v. Westborough 


290 


v. Worcester 


8 


v. Young 


406 


Conners v. Loker 


428 


Connolly v. Beverly 


6 


Conway v. Russell 


389 


Coolidge v. Brookline 


5 


Copeland v. Huntington 


44 


Cummington v. Belchertown 


268 


Currier v. Esty 


423 



Dallinger v. Davis 344 

Dartmouth v. County Commis- 
sioners 289, 292 
Davis v. Barnstable 3 
Day v. Otis 158 
Dickenson v. N. H. & N. R. R. 295 
». Billings 228 
Drury v. Natick 3 
Dunn v. Framingham 5, 6 
Dunnell Manufacturing Corpora- 
tion v. Pawtucket 238 
D wight v. Mayor, etc. of Boston 242 



Eastman v. Allard 17 



Fairbanks v. Fitchburg 


301 


Fall River v. Riley 


383 


v. Taunton 


272 


Farnum v. Buffum 


346 


Farwell v. Hathaway 


241 


Felker v. Standard Yarn Co. 


229 


Firemen's Insurance Co. v. Com 




monwealth 


239 


Fisk v. Springfield 


44 


Flagg v. Worcester 


280 


Flax Pond Water Co. v. Lynn 


228 


Foley v. Haverhill 


305 


Folger v. Hinckley 


431 


Freeland v. Hastings 


6 


Fuller v, Groton 126 


, 328 


v. Melrose 


44 


George v Mendon 


122 


Gerry v. Stoneham 


207 


Gilkey v. Watertown 


296 


Gleason v. Boston 


271 


Goddard v. Petersham 


283 


Goff v. Rehoboth 


156 


Gray v. Street Commissioners 


230 


Greenfield v. Wilson 


383 


Griffin v. Rising 


228 


Gfoveland v. Medford 


254 


Hale v County Commissioners 


230 


Hall v. Commissioners 


245 


Hallowell v. Harwich 


254 



Hammond v. County Commission- 
ers 289 
Hancock v. Hazard 336, 379 
Hardy v. Waltham 5 
Harrington v. Worcester 345, 348 
Hawks v. Charlemont 281 
Hayden v. Foster 345 
Hays v. Drake 120, 216, 335 
Higginson v. Nahant 289, 291 
Hill v. Boston 1, 3 

v. Mowry 348 

Hittinger v. Boston 241 

v. Westford 241, 242 

Hobart v. Plymouth 290 

Hodgkins v. Rockport 312 

Holbrook v. McBride 286, 418 

Holcomb v. Moore 289 

Holmes v. Greene 237 

Holt v. Weld 350 

Hood v. Lynn 5, 9 
Howard v. Proctor 110, 335, 336, 341 

v. Stevens 138 

Huse v. Lowell 312 

Hutchings v. Thompson 253 



Ingram v. Cowles 


229, 242 


Ireland, Jr. v. Newburyport 


252 


Jeffries v. Swampscott 


292 


Jewell v. Abington 


330 


Johnson v. Wyman 


290 


Jones o. Andover 


289 


v. Boston 


305 


Kean v. Stetson 


289, 292 


Kearns v. Cunniff 


238 


Keen v. Sheehan 


345 


Kennedy v. Owen 


419 


Kennison v. Beverly 


285 


Kingman v. Brockton 


3 


Kirkland v. Whateley 


243 


Knowles v. Boston 


320 



Lamson v. Newburyport 257 

Lanesborough v. Berkshire County 

Commissioners 206 

Langdon v. Stewart 345 

Lawrence v. Nahant 300 

Leavitt v. Leavitt 382 

Lee v. Lenox 270 

v. Templeton 240 

Leominster v. Conant 217, 300, 301 
Lincoln v. Warren 290 

Little v. Cambridge 245 

Littlefield v. Boston & Albany 

R. R. 156 

Lothrop v. Ide 341 

Lowell v. County Commissioners 212, 
220, 222, 229, 242 
Lynde v. Brown 238 

Lynn v. Nahant 1 



TABLE OF CASES. 



XV 



Marden v. Boston 271 

Market National Bank v. Belmont 345 
Massachusetts Society, etc. v. 

Boston 232 

McGee v. Salem ■ 229 

McKenna v. Kimball 312 

Melcher v. Boston 230 

Merrick v. Work 429 

Middlesex R. K. v. Charlestown 241 
Monson v. Palmer 2(58 

Monterey v. County Commission- 
ers of Berkshire 289, 293 
Moody v. Newhuryport 228 
Moors v. Street Commissioners 206 
Mount Auburn Cemetery v. Cam- 
bridge 233, 302 
Mount Hermon Boys' School v. 
Gill 232 



Nealley u. Bradford 

Needham v. New York & New 



282 



England R. R. 


284 


, 287 


Neff v. Wellesley 


251 


,252 


Nelson v. Boston & Maine R. R. 


230 


New Bedford v. Chace 




251 


v. Hingham 




258 


v. Taunton 




267 


Newburyport v. County 


Commis- 




sionere 




206 


v. Creedon 




253 


Newell v. Hill 


417,418 


New Marlboro v. County Commis- 




sioners 




293 


Ninth School District 


in Wey- 




mouth v. Loud 




312 


Norcross v. Milford 




220 


Noyes, Jr. v. Haverhill 




340 


Oakham v. Sutton 




269 


O'Day v. Bowker 




345 


O'Keefe v. Northampton 




258 


Old Colony R. R. v. Fall Rn 


294 


Osborn v. Danvers 




220 


Otis v. Boston 




237 


Otis Company v. Ware 




206 


Packard v. Ryder 




445 


Parker v. Jones 




427 


v. Lowell 




280 


Parson t>, Pettingill 




177 


Parsons v. Northampton 




44 


Petersham v. Colerain 




259 


Pettingill v. Porter 




286 


Phelan v. Lawrence 


149 


153 


Phelon v. Granville 




122 


Phillips o. Bristol 


428 


432 


Pickard v. Howe 


427 


431 


Pierce v. Cambridge 




234 


v. Eddy 


242 


343 



Porter v. County Commissioners 

of Norfolk 221 

v. Sullivan 1 

Pratt v. Street Commissioners 230 

v. Weymouth 282 

Preston v. Boston 220 

Prince v. Boston 44 

v. Lynn 282 

Provincetown v. Smith 402 



Quincy v. Kennard 406 

Quinn v. Lowell Electric Light 
Co. 168 



Railroad v. Boston 295 

v. Cambridge 235 

v. Charlestown 241 

v. Fall River 294 

Rand v. Wilder 126 

Randolph v. Easton 270 

Reading v. Maiden 254 

Reed v. Crapo 345 

v. Lancaster 251 

Reidell o. Congdon 267 

Reynolds v. New Salem 125 

Rich v. Packard National Bank 249 

Richardson v. Boston 229 

Ricker v. American Loan & Trust 

Co. 243 
v. Brooks 343 
Rogers v. Newbury 257 
Ruggles v. Inhabitants of Nan- 
tucket 177 



Salem v. Eastern R. R. 390, 391 

Salem Lyceum v. Salem 232 
Salem Marine Society v, Salem 235 

Sanderson v. Lawrence 432 

Sandwich v. Fish 336 

Sanford v. Sanford 347 
School District No. 10 in Ux- 

bridge v. Mowry et al. 320 

Sears v. Charlemont 418, 419 

Seekonk v. Rehoboth 254 

Sheffield v. Otis 272 

Sherman v. Torrey 127 

v. Braman 429 
Sherwin v. Boston Five Cents 

Savings Bank 353 
Singer Manufacturing Co. v. 

County Commissioners 241 

Smith v. Cheshire 156 

v. Colerain 250 

v. Dedham 11 

v. Peabody 250 

Snow v. Clark 341 

v. Fitchburg 301 

Somerville v. Dickerman 305 

Southworth v. Edmands 238 

Spaulding v. Lowell 5 

Spencer v. Leicester 269 



xvi 



TABLE OF CASES. 



Spiller v. Woburn 332 

Spring v. Hyde Park 403 

Stevens v. Hay 379 
St. James Educational Institute v. 

Salem 232 

Sullivan v. Wentworth 384 

Swan's Case 193 



Taunton v. Wareham 

Taylor v. Plymouth 

Templeton v. Winchendon 

Thayer v. Arnold 

Third Congregational Society v 

Springfield 
Tobey v. Wareham 
Tobin v. Gillespie 
Todd v. Rowley 
Tovvnsend v. Billerica 

v. Walcutt 
Train v. Boston Disinfecting Co. 
Treadwell v. Boston 
Tremont Bank v. Boston 
Trowbridge v. Brookline 
Trustees of Greene Foundation v 

Boston 
Turner v. Sisson 
Tush v. Adams 
Tyler v. Hardwick 



Uxbridge v. Seekonk 
Vandine's Case 



206, 270 
177 



254 

428 

233 
206, 208 
240 
281 
254 
342 
402 
306 
238 
300 

234 

383 

44 

340 



254 



Walker v. Southbridge 
Wall v. Wall 

v. Gray 2, 

Walpole v. Marblehead 
Waltham Bank v. Waltham 
Washburn v. White 
Watson v. Cambridge 312, 

Wayland v. County Commission- 
ers 
Webster v. Uxbridge 
Weld v. Brooks 
Wendell v. Fleming 
Westhampton v. Searle 
West Newbury v. Bradford 
West Roxbury v. Stoddard 
Wheeler v. Fitchburg 
White v. Foxborough 

v. Godfrey 

v. Phillipston 
Wild v. Skinner 
vWillard v. Newburyport 
Williston Seminary v. County 
Commissioners 231, 232, 

Wilson v. Cambridge 

v. Shearer 
Winnisimet Company v. Assessors, 

etc. 
Winthrop v. Farrar 
Woodbury v. Hamilton 
Wood v. Quincy 

v. Torrey 
Worcester v. Auburn 

v. Western R. R. 

v. Wilbraham 
Wyman v. Lexington, &c. R. R. 



258 
347 
156 
268 
245 
262 
313 



235 
254 
290 
335 
127 
269 
1 
296 
295 
287 
281 
427, 431 
5,8 



243 

328 
340 

221 
407 
5 
286 
244 
269 
235 
270 
195 



THE TOWN OFFICER 



CHAPTER I. 

GENERAL POWERS AND DUTIES OF TOWNS. 

The Nature of a Town. 

§ 1. The towns and cities of Massachusetts have been 
established by the Legislature for public purposes and the 
administration of public affairs, and embrace all persons 
residing within their respective limits. At the first settle- 
ment of the Colony, towns consisted of clusters of inhabit- 
ants dwelling near each other, which, by the effect of 
legislative acts, designating them by name, and conferring 
upon them the powers of managing their own prudential 
affairs, electing representatives and town officers, making 
by-laws, and disposing, subject to the paramount control of 
the Legislature, of unoccupied lands within their territory, 
became in effect, municipal, or quasi, corporations, without 
any formal act of incorporation. Gray, C. J., in Hill v. 
Boston, 122 Mass. 344, p. 349 ; Porter v. Sullivan, 7 Gray, 
441, 444 ; Com. v. Roxbury, 9 Gray, 451, 485 ; West Roxbury 
v. Stoddard, 7 Allen, 158, 169 ; Lynn v. Nahant, 113 Mass. 
433, 448. 

§ 2. Towns are strictly public corporations, established 
for the convenient administration of government; their 
municipal powers and duties are not created and regulated 
by contract, express or implied, but by acts passed by the 
Legislature from time to time, according to its judgment of 
what the interests of the public require ; and they have not 
the same rights to judicial trial and determination in regard 
to the obligations imposed upon them as other corporations and 

l 



2 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

individuals have. Gray, C. J., in Agawam v. Hampden, 130 
Mass. 528, p. 530. 

Powers and Duties of Towns. 
(a) In General. 

§ 3. Towns shall continue to be bodies corporate, with 
all the powers heretofore exercised by them, and subject to 
all the duties to which they have heretofore been subject. 

§ 4. The boundary lines of towns bordering upon the 
sea shall extend beyond the shore to the line of the Com- 
monwealth (which extends one marine league from its sea- 
shore at low-water mark), but otherwise shall remain as 
now established. 

§ 5. There shall be a perambulation of town lines, and 
they shall be run and the marks renewed, once in every five 
years, by two or more of the selectmen of each town, or 
such substitutes as they in writing appoint for that purpose. 
After every such renewal the proceedings shall be recorded 
in the records of the respective towns. Pub. Stats, ch. 27, 
§§ 1-3. Selectmen have no authority to change the boun- 
daries, or to adjudicate upon the limits of towns, but only to 
ascertain existing lines and renew old marks and monuments. 
Commonwealth v. Heffron, 102 Mass. 148, p. 151. 

§ 6. The commissioners on the topographical survey and 
map of Massachusetts may propose for the acceptance of the 
Legislature a change, by straightening or otherwise, in the 
existing boundary lines of any contiguous towns, provided 
such towns, at meetings duly called for the purpose, concur 
therein. Sts. 1888, ch. 336, § L 

§ 7. Towns may in their corporate capacity sue and be 
sued by the name of the town, and may appoint all neces- 
sary agents and attorneys in. that behalf. Pub. Stats., ch. 27, 
§ 8. Selectmen are not such agents without special authority. 
Walpole v. G-ray, 11 Allen, 149. 

§ 8. Towns may hold real estate for the public use of the 
inhabitants, and may convey the same either by a vote of 
the inhabitants or by a deed of their committee or agent ; 
may hold personal estate for the public use of the inhabit- 



GENERAL POWERS AND DUTIES OF TOWNS. 3 

ants, and alienate and dispose of the same by vote or other- 
wise ; may hold real and personal estate in trust for the 
support of schools, and for the promotion of education within 
the limits of the town ; may receive, hold, and manage any 
devise, bequest, or donation for the establishment or main- 
tenance of any reading-room for which it may grant money 
under the following section; may make contracts necessary 
and convenient for the exercise of their corporate powers; 
and may make orders for the disposal or use of their corpo- 
rate property, as they may judge necessary or expedient for 
the interest of the inhabitants. Pub. Stats, eh. 27, § 9. 
They may take and hold devises and bequests for appropriate 
charitable uses. Drury v. JVatick, 10 Allen, 169 ; Hill v. 
Boston, 122 Mass., at p. 349. A gift to a town by will, the 
income of which is to be applied to the support of the public 
schools of the town, is a gift for a charitable use which the town 
may properly take. Davis v. Barnstable, 154 Mass. 224. 

§ 9. Any city or town is authorized to lease, for a period 
not exceeding five years, to any post of the Grand Army of 
the Republic established in such city or town, to be used by 
such post solely for the purposes of its organization, and to 
lease, for a period not exceeding five years, to any veteran 
firemen's association established in such city or town, to be 
used by such association solely for the purposes of its organi- 
zation, any public building or part thereof belonging to such 
city or town, except schoolhouses in actual use as such, on 
such terms as the aldermen of such city or the selectmen of 
such town may determine. Sts. 1885, ch. 60 ; Sts. 1891, 
ch. 218. The statute of 1885, chapter sixty, refers only to 
existing public buildings, and by no means authorizes the 
erection of a building to be let to a Grand Army Post at 
a nominal rent. Allen, J., in Kingman v. Brockton, 153 
Mass. 255, p. 259. 

§ 10. Any town in the Commonwealth which has public 
grounds or open spaces in any of its streets, highways, or 
town ways, which it may have designated or shall hereafter 
designate as not needed for public travel, may give the im- 
provement thereof to corporations within its limits organized 
under the provisions of section eighteen of chapter one hun- 



4 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

dred and fourteen of the Public Statutes. Corporations which 
have or may hereafter have the improvement of such desig- 
nated spaces given them, shall have the use, care and control 
thereof, and may grade, drain, curb, set out shade or orna- 
mental trees, lay out flower plats, and otherwise improve the 
same, and may protect their work by suitable fences or rail- 
ings ; subject at all times to such directions as may be given 
by the selectmen or road commissioners. Sts. 1885, ch. 157. 

§ 11. Towns may at legal meetings grant and vote such 
sums as they judge necessary for the following purposes : — 

For the support of public schools authorized or required 
by law ; 

For the relief, support, maintenance, and employment of 
the poor; 

For laying out, discontinuing, making, altering, and repair- 
ing highways and town ways, and for labor and materials to 
be used thereon ; 

For procuring the writing and publishing of their town 
histories ; 

For burial-grounds ; 

For encouraging the destruction of noxious animals ; 

For necessary aid to disabled soldiers and sailors and 
their families, and to the families of the slain ; 

For erecting headstones or other monuments at the graves 
of persons who, accredited to their respective quotas, served 
in the military or naval service of the United States in the 
war of the Rebellion ; in the Revolutionary war, the war of 
1812, the Seminole war, and the Mexican war; erecting mon- 
uments in memory of their soldiers who died in the service 
of the country in said war; and for keeping in repair or 
decorating graves, monuments, or other memorials erected 
to the memory of soldiers or sailors who have died in the 
military or naval service of the United States ; 

For conveying pupils to and from the public schools, the same 
to be expended by the school committee in their discretion ; 

For procuring the detection and apprehension of persons 
committing any felony therein ; 

For maintaining any library therein to which the inhabit- 
ants are allowed free access for the purpose of using the 



GENERAL POWERS AND DUTIES OF TOWNS. 5 

same on the premises, and for establishing and maintaining a 
public reading-room, in connection with and under the control 
of the managers of such library ; and for all other necessary 
charges arising in such town. Pub. Stats, ch. 27, § 10 ; 
Sts. 1884, ch. 42 ; Sts. 1886, ch. 76. Sts. 1888, ch. 304. 

The foregoing seems not to have been intended to be an 
enumeration of objects and purposes for which towns may 
raise money, but the expression of a few leading and promi- 
nent objects, by way of instance, and a general reference to 
others under the term " other necessary charges." Shaw, 
C. J., in Willard v. Newbury port, 12 Pick. 227, p. 230. 

But these " other necessary charges " are limited to objects 
of a like character with those previously specified. Allen v. 
Marion, 11 Allen, 108 ; Coolidge v. Brookline, 114 Mass. 594. 
But it was intended to give authority to towns to raise money 
whenever it is required to enable them to execute the powers 
or to perform the duties conferred and imposed upon them. 
Dunn v. Framingham, 132 Mass. 436. And courts have held 
such charges to embrace building a market-house ; Spaulding 
v. Lowell, 23 Pick. 71; repairing a meeting-house as com- 
pensation for its use for town meetings, and paying a sexton 
for services ; Woodbury v. Hamilton, 6 Pick. 101 ; repairing 
fire-engines, whether belonging to the town or private owners ; 
Allen v. Taunton, 19 Pick. 485 ; repairing a public clock. 
Willard v. Newburyport, 12 Pick. 227 ; constructing reser- 
voirs for water to supply fire-engines. Hardy v. Waltham, 
3 Met. 163. 

But towns cannot legally raise or appropriate money to 
celebrate anniversaries, such as the fourth of July, or the 
surrender of Cornwallis. Bigelow, C. J., says : " The appro- 
priation is neither necessary to the exercise of any power 
expressly granted to the city ; nor is it incidental to any right 
or authority, which, though not expressly granted, has its origin 
in well-settled usage, and is founded upon the necessities, 
convenience, or even the comfort of the inhabitants. This is 
the extreme limit of the power of towns and cities to grant 
money, as settled by repeated adjudications of this court," 
Hood v. Lynn, 1 Allen, 103, p. 105, and cases cited. 

The clause of Pub. Stats, ch. 27, § 10, authorizing towns to 



6 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

raise money " for all other necessary charges arising therein," 
is " not limited to the purposes specifically enumerated in the 
section, or to others of the same kind. It was intended to 
give authority to towns to raise money whenever it was 
required to enable them to execute the powers or to perform 
the duties conferred and imposed upon them. Therefore, 
whenever the legislature confers a power or imposes a 
duty upon towns, this clause applies, and gives the towns 
authority to grant money which is required to enable them 
to execute the power or to perform the duty." Consequently 
a town may vote to appropriate money for the enforcement of 
the liquor law, and to employ agents and counsel to suppress 
the sale of intoxicating liquors. Dunn v. Framingham, 132 
Mass. 436. 

" Legal meetings " include special meetings called after the 
annual meeting. The purposes for which money is raised 
should be expressed in the vote, though it has been held suffi- 
cient when the objects were stated in town meeting by the 
chairman of the selectmen, where the parties afterwards 
objecting to the appropriation were present and made no 
objection. Freeland v. Hastings, 10 Allen, 570. 

§ 12. Towns may contract for the disposal of garbage, 
refuse, and offal. Sts. 1889, ch. 377. They may contract 
with hospitals for the temporary care of the sick. Sts. 1890, 
ch. 119. They may employ counsel at hearings before legis- 
lative committees. Sts. 1889, ch. 380. 

Under the St. 1889, ch. 380, authorizing the employment of 
counsel by " any town interested in a petition to the Legisla- 
ture " to represent it at hearings thereon, a town may employ 
and pay counsel to oppose its division before a committee of 
the Legislature. Connolly v. Beverly, 151 Mass. 437. 

§ 13. A town may, at its annual meeting, raise, by taxation, 
a sum of money, not exceeding one tenth of one per cent of 
its assessed valuation for the year last preceding, for the pur- 
pose of celebrating any centennial or two hundred and 
fiftieth anniversary of its incorporation, and of publishing 
the proceedings of any such celebration. Sts. 1889, ch. 21. 

§ 14. Any city or town may raise, by taxation, such 
amount of money as may be authorized by a vote of two 



GENERAL POWERS AND DUTIES OF TOWNS. 7 

thirds of the voters present and voting at a town meeting, or 
of two thirds of the members of each branch of the city 
council, taken by yeas and nays and approved by the mayor, 
for the purpose of celebrating the anniversary of its settle- 
ment, or of its incorporation as a town, or as a city, at the 
end of a period of fifty or of any multiple of fifty years from 
such settlement or incorporation, and of publishing an account 
of the proceedings of any such celebration. Sts. 1892, eh. 166. 

§ 15. A city or town may grant and vote a sum not 
exceeding fifty cents for each of its ratable polls in the pre- 
ceding year, to be expended in planting, or in encouraging the 
planting by the owners of adjoining real estate, of shade trees 
upon the public squares or highways, and may plant such 
trees subject to the provisions of § 793 (post). Sts. 1885, 
ch. 123, §1. 

§ 16. A town in which chapter two hundred and fourteen 
of the statutes of the year eighteen hundred and seventy-four 
has been duly accepted, or in which this and the following 
section have been accepted by two thirds of the legal voters 
present and voting at an annual meeting, may purchase or 
lease lands, and erect, alter, enlarge, repair, and improve 
buildings for public baths and wash-houses, either with or 
without open drying grounds, and may make open bathing- 
places, and may fit up and furnish all of the same with the 
requisite furniture, fittings, and conveniences, and may raise 
and appropriate money therefor. 

§ 17. Such town may establish rates for the use of such 
baths and wash-houses, and appoint officers therefor, and 
may make by-laws for the government of such officers, and 
authorize them to make such rules and regulations as may 
seem to them expedient for the management of such baths 
and wash-houses ; but such by-laws, rules, or regulations shall 
be subject to alteration or repeal at any time. Pub. Stats. 
ch. 27, §§13, 14. 

§ 18. Towns may make for the following named purposes 
in addition to other purposes authorized by law such necessary 
orders and by-laws, not repugnant to law, as they may judge 
most conducive to their welfare, and may affix penalties, not 
exceeding twenty dollars for one offence, for breaches thereof : 



8 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

For directing and managing the prudential affairs, pre- 
serving the peace and good order, and maintaining the internal 
police thereof. 

For preventing the falling and securing the removal of snow 
and ice from the roofs of buildings in such portion of their 
limits, and to such extent, as they may deem expedient ; the 
penalty for violation of such by-laws to apply to the owner of 
such building, or to his agent having the care thereof. 

For requiring owners of buildings near the line of streets 
and public ways to erect barriers or to take other suitable 
measures to prevent the falling of snow and ice from such 
buildings upon persons travelling on such streets and ways, 
and to protect such persons from any other dangers incident 
to the maintenance, occupation, or use of such buildings. 
Pub. Stats, ch. 27, § 15. 

The term " by-law " has a peculiar and limited signification, 
being used to designate the orders and regulations which a 
corporation, as one of its legal incidents, has power to make, 
and which is usually exercised to regulate its own action and 
concerns, and the rights and duties of its members amongst 
themselves. Shaw, C. J., Commonwealth v. Turner, 1 Cush. 
496. 

By-laws must be reasonable, and it is for the court to decide 
whether they are unreasonable or not. If unreasonable, they 
are void. If necessary for the good government of society, 
they are good. Commonwealth v. Worcester, 3 Pick. 472; 
Vandine's Case, 6 Pick. 191 ; Boston v. Shaw, 1 Met. 130. 

" Prudential concerns " of a town embrace that large class 
of miscellaneous subjects affecting the accommodation and 
convenience of the inhabitants, which have been placed under 
the municipal jurisdiction of towns by statutes or by usage ; 
such as public hay-scales, burying-grounds, wells and reser- 
voirs, one or more public clocks for the common regulation of 
time, in all large towns and populous villages. Willard v. 
Newburyport, 12 Pick. 231. 

But the usage must be what the law terms a good usage. 
" An unlawful expenditure of the money of a town cannot be 
rendered valid by usage, however long continued. A casual 
or occasional exercise of a power by one or a few towns will 



GENERAL POWERS AND DUTIES OF TOWNS. V 

not constitute a usage. It must not only be general, reason- 
able, and of long continuance, but, what is more important, 
it must also be a custom necessary to the exercise of some 
corporate power or the enjoyment of some corporate right, 
or which contributes essentially to the necessities and con- 
venience of the inhabitants." Hood v. Lynn, 1 Allen, 106. 

§ 19. A town in which water is supplied at the public 
expense, may by by-laws prescribe rules and regulations for 
the inspection, materials, construction, alteration, or use of all 
pipes and of fixtures through which such water is used within 
said town, and may impose penalties not exceeding twenty 
dollars for each violation thereof ; and may prohibit the use 
of such water by persons neglecting or refusing to comply 
with the , provisions of such by-laws ; and any such by-law 
may be made operative within the whole territory of such 
town, or within any prescribed or defined district or districts 
of said territory. 

§ 20. The powers conferred by the preceding section, 
except the power to impose penalties, may be exercised through 
any board or commission which the town may designate ; but 
the powers so delegated may at any time be revoked by the 
authority delegating them. 

§ 21. A town may regulate by by-laws, not repugnant to 
law, with penalties not exceeding fifty dollars for each viola- 
tion thereof, the use of reservoirs and land and drive-ways 
appurtenant thereto, forming a part of its system of water 
supply within its limits. 

§ 22. All penalties for breaches of the orders and by-laws 
of a town may be recovered on complaint before a police, dis- 
trict, or municipal court, or a trial justice, and shall inure to 
the town, or to such uses as the town may direct. 

§ 23. When a town in a by-law imposes a duty and affixes 
a penalty for refusal or neglect to perform the same, it may 
therein provide that, in case of such refusal or neglect, the 
duty may be performed by officers therein named at the 
expense of the party liable to perform the same; and such 
expense may be recovered of such party by the town in an 
action of contract in the name of its treasurer ; but the amount 
recovered shall not exceed the penalty fixed in the by-law. 



10 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

§ 24. Before any by-law takes effect it shall be approved 
by the superior court or in vacation by a justice thereof, and 
shall with such approval be entered and recorded in the office 
of the clerk of the courts in the county where the town is 
situated, or in the county of Suffolk in the office of the clerk 
of the superior court for civil business. 

§ 25, Such by-laws shall be binding upon all persons 
coming within the limits of the town, as well as upon the 
inhabitants thereof. 

§ 26. All by-laws made by a town shall be published in 
one or more newspapers printed in the county where the town 
is situated. 

§ 27. Each town shall provide at its own expense some 
suitable cabinet or book-case for the safe preservation of such 
books, reports, and laws as it receives from the Commonwealth, 
and for every month's neglect shall forfeit ten dollars. 

§ 28. One copy or more of the annual report of a town, or 
of any special report relating to its income, expenditures, or 
other affairs, shall be returned by the clerk of such town, 
on or before the last day of April in each year, to the State 
librarian, to be deposited and preserved in the State library. 

§ 29. If a town neglects to make the return required in 
the preceding section, the publications distributed by authority 
of the Commonwealth shall be withheld while such neglect 
continues. Pub. Stats, eh. 27, §§ 16-26. 

§ 80. A town with the consent of a majority of its select- 
men, ratified by a majority of its voters, present and voting 
thereon at a legal meeting, at which the check-list shall be 
used, may, for the purpose of supplying water to its inhabit- 
ants, purchase of any municipal or other corporation the right 
to take water from any of its sources of supply, or from pipes 
leading therefrom ; or may purchase its whole water-rights, 
estates, franchises, and privileges, and thereby become entitled 
to all the rights and privileges and subject to all the duties 
and liabilities of said corporation ; or may make a contract 
therewith for a supply of water. Pub. Stats., ch. 27, § 27. 

The selectmen of a town, under a vote of the town authoriz- 
ing them to do so, made a contract with a water company for 
three years at a certain rate per year for the service of a num- 



GENERAL POWERS AND DUTIES OF TOWNS. 11 

ber of hydrants. At the expiration of the three years a town 
meeting was held to see what action the town would take with 
reference to a supply of water for fire and other service. It 
was voted that " the selectmen be authorized to renew the 
contract for ten years with the company at a reduced rate 
per year." Held, that the contract authorized by the vote did 
not come within the provisions of section 27 of chapter 27, 
of the Public Statutes ; for the contract to which the statute 
refers is a contract for the supply of water for all uses, and 
was not intended to interfere with the corporate power of 
towns to procure water for fire purposes. Smith v. Bed ham, 
144 Mass., 177. 

§ 31. A town making such purchase may issue, in payment 
therefor, b'onds, bearing interest at a rate not exceeding seven 
per cent, payable semiannually, and redeemable at a time not 
exceeding twenty years from their date ; and may, for the 
purpose of purchasing materials, laying pipes, and doing other 
work necessary for so supplying water, issue additional similar 
bonds : and a town making such contract as aforesaid may, 
for the purpose named in this section, issue similar bonds. 

§ 32. The whole amount of bonds issued by any town 
under the preceding section shall not exceed ten per cent of 
its valuation. 

§ 33. If the water is brought through another city or town, 
pipes may be laid through any streets and highways therein 
designated by the mayor and aldermen or selectmen thereof ; 
and the town laying such pipes shall be liable, in an action of 
contract or tort, for all damages occasioned thereby. Pub. 
Stats., ch. 27, §§ 28-30. 

§ 34. All purchase money received under the provisions of 
the four preceding sections by a town owing a water debt shall 
be applied to the payment of such debt. Pub. Stats., ch. 27, 
§31. 

§ 35. Any city or town having a water supply may contract 
with any other city or town situated in the water-shed of such 
supply to contribute, on such terms as may be deemed proper, 
to the cost of building a sewer or system of sewers which will 
aid in protecting any part of the source of such water supply 
from pollution. Sts. 1888, ch. 160. 



12 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

§ 36. Each town containing more than three thousand 
inhabitants shall, and every town may, keep and maintain a 
secure and convenient lock-up to which persons arrested by 
an officer without a warrant may be committed ; and a police, 
district, or municipal court, or a trial justice, may commit, 
for further examination, a prisoner charged with a bailable 
offence, and not recognizing, to the lock-up in the town in 
which the court is held, when in the opinion of such court or 
justice it may be deemed safe and commodious and costs may 
be saved thereby. 

§ 37. The selectmen in towns required to maintain a lock-up 
shall annually appoint a keeper, who shall have the custody 
and care of the same and of persons committed thereto, and 
who shall signify his acceptance of the appointment within 
three days after he has notice thereof, and shall be sworn. 
Such appointment shall be in writing, and for the term of one 
year unless sooner revoked ; and it shall be recorded in the 
town clerk's office. Pub. Stats., ch. 27, §§ 32, 33. 

§ 38. Such keepers shall have the powers of police officers, 
with such compensation, to be paid by the town, as may be fixed 
by the selectmen at the time of their appointment. For the 
expenses of detention and support of each person committed 
there may be charged upon the warrant or other precept, if 
any, fifty cents for each full day of twenty-four hours from 
the time of committment, and the same sum for any fractional 
part of a day, and no more, which shall be paid to the town 
maintaining the lock-up. But no fee for detention and sup- 
port will be allowed unless it appears from the officer's return 
that the defendant was actually detained in the lock-up. Pub. 
Stats., ch. 27, § 34 ; Sts. 1890, ch. 166. 

§ 39. A town which neglects to provide and maintain a 
lock-up required by law shall forfeit ten dollars for each month 
of such neglect. And if the selectmen neglect to appoint a 
keeper, they shall forfeit ten dollars for each month of such 
neglect. 

§ 40. Such lock-ups shall at all reasonable hours be acces- 
sible for any legal and proper use to members of the district 
police, and to sheriffs, constables, and police officers ; and a 
keeper of a lock-up who neglects to keep the same so acces- 



GENERAL POWERS AND DUTIES OF TOWNS. 13 

sible, or who refuses to permit said officers so to use the same, 
shall pay a fine of not less than five nor more than twenty 
dollars. 

§ 41. A town at a legal meeting may authorize a village 
or district in such town, containing not less than one thousand 
inhabitants, the limits of which shall be accurately defined, to 
organize under a name approved by such town, for the purpose 
of erecting and maintaining street lamps, establishing and 
maintaining libraries, building and maintaining sidewalks, 
and employing and paying watchmen and police officers, or 
for any of such purposes. 

§ 42. The provisions of sections forty-two, forty-three, 
forty-six, fifty-one, fifty-two, fifty-three, fifty-four, fifty-eight, 
and sixty* of chapter thirty-five of the Public Statutes shall, 
so far as applicable, apply to such districts. 

§ 43. The officers of such districts shall be a clerk and 
prudential committee, and they may have in addition a treas- 
urer, and such other officers as the district may decide ; and 
all such officers shall hold their offices for one year, and until 
others are chosen and qualified in their stead. 

§ 44. Such districts may adopt by-laws to define the 
manner of calling their meetings and the duties of their offi- 
cers, and may sue and be sued in the name of their inhabitants. 

§ 45. A town, at a meeting held for the purpose, may take 
any land not appropriated to public uses, within its limits, as 
a place for the erection of a town-hall, or for the enlargement 
of its town-hall lot ; but no lot so taken or enlarged shall ex- 
ceed in extent one acre. The town shall, within sixty days 
after such taking, file in the registry of deeds for the county 
or district in which the land is situated such a description of 
the land so taken as is required in a common conveyance, 
and a statement of the purpose for which such land was taken, 
which description and statement shall be signed by the select- 
men, or by a major part of them ; and the title of such land 
shall vest in such town from the time of such filing. 

§ 46. All damages sustained by such taking shall be paid 
by the town ; and if the selectmen fail to agree upon such 
damages with the owner, the same may be assessed and deter- 
mined by a jury in the manner provided by law in the case of 



14 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

the laying out of town ways, upon application therefor made 
within three years after such filing. If the damages so 
awarded exceed the amount tendered to the owner as compen- 
sation before the filing of his application for a jury, he shall 
recover his costs ; otherwise, the town shall recover costs. 

§ 47. Land so taken shall revert to the owner, or to his 
heirs or assigns, unless within three years after the riling of 
such description and statement a town-hall is erected thereon, 
or the same is enclosed and devoted to the enlargement of a 
town-hall lot. 

§ 48. A town may construct lines of electric telegraph for 
its own use upon and along the public ways within its limits, 
subject to the provisions of chapter one hundred and nine of 
the Public Statutes as far as the same are applicable. Pub. 
Stats, ch. 27, §§ 35-44. 

§ 49. The selectmen may establish and maintain such 
public drinking troughs, wells, and fountains within the public 
highways, squares, and commons of their respective towns, as 
in their judgment the public necessity and convenience may 
require ; and towns may grant and vote money to defray the 
expense thereof. 

§ 50. When a town is required to enter into a recognizance, 
the selectmen may by an order or vote authorize any person 
to enter into the recognizance in the name and behalf of the 
town, and it shall be binding upon such town. No surety 
shall be required in such recognizance. Pub. Stats, ch. 27, 
§§ 50, 51. 

§ 51. Towns may at their annual meetings establish by- 
laws to provide for the removal of snow and ice, to such 
extent as they may deem expedient, from sidewalks within the 
limits of the highways or town ways therein. 

§ 52. Such by-laws shall determine the time and manner 
of removal, and shall annex penalties, to be recovered in an 
action of tort in the name of the town, not exceeding ten dol- 
lars for each violation thereof by any owner or tenant of an 
estate abutting upon such sidewalks. 

§ 53. A city or town may make suitable by-laws and regu- 
lations to prevent the pasturing of cattle or other animals, 
either with or without a keeper, upon any or all of the streets 



GENERAL POWERS AND DUTIES OF TOWNS. 15 

or ways in such city or town, and may annex penalties not 
exceeding twenty dollars for each violation thereof. But no 
such by-law or regulation shall affect the right of a person to 
the use of land within the limits of such way adjoining his 
own premises. 

§ 54. A city or town may regulate by suitable ordinances 
or by-laws the passage and driving of sheep, swine, and neat 
cattle through and over the public streets, ways, causeways, 
and bridges therein, and may annex penalties not exceeding 
fifty dollars for each violation thereof. 

§ 55. A city or town may regulate by ordinance or by-law 
the transportation of the offal of slaughtered cattle, hogs, 
sheep, or other animals, over, along, or through any of the 
public streets or highways therein, and may annex penalties 
not exceeding one hundred dollars for each violation thereof. 

§ 36. A city or town may by ordinance or by-law prohibit 
persons from riding or driving beasts of burden, carriage, or 
draught upon any of the streets or ways for public travel 
therein at a rate of speed which it deems inconsistent with the 
public safety or convenience, under such penalties as it may 
impose for breaches of other ordinances or by-laws. Pub. 
Stats, ch. 53, §§ 8-13. 

§ 57. A town may at an annual meeting establish by-laws 
to prevent persons from riding or driving horses at a rate 
faster than a walk over any bridge within its limits, and which 
has cost not less than five hundred dollars, and may annex 
penalties not exceeding one dollar for a breach thereof ; but 
such by-laws shall first be approved by the commissioners for 
the county in which such town lies. 

§ 58. Each city and town in which any such bridge termi- 
nates shall cause to be posted in a conspicuous place on or 
near the end of such bridge in said city or town, and to be 
there kept up, a white board containing in black letters the 
substance of the two preceding sections ; and any such city or 
town neglecting to post and keep up such notice shall forfeit 
to the use of the county ten dollars for each day's neglect. 
Pub. Stats, ch. 53, §§ 19, 26. 

§ 59. A city or town in which a draw for the passage of 
vessels through a bridge, used as a public highway, and main- 



16 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

tained at the public expense, is situated, may make ordinances 
or by-laws regulating the passage of vessels through such 
draw, and may annex penalties not exceeding fifty dollars for 
each violation thereof ; but no such ordinance or by-law shall 
•take effect until approved by the board of harbor and land 
commissioners. 

§ 60. When such ordinances or by-laws are made appli- 
cable to a draw, the city or town shall place said draw under 
the direction of a suitable person as draw-tender or super- 
intendent, and shall post a copy of such ordinances or by-laws 
in some conspicuous place near by. Pub. Stats, ch. 53, §§ 
28, 29. 

§ 61. A town may adopt such ordinances, by-laws, and 
regulations, as it may deem reasonable in relation to the 
manufacture, mixing, storing, keeping, or selling within the 
corporate limits of the town, of naphtha, except for the pur- 
pose of re-manufacture, which will ignite at a temperature of 
less than one hundred and ten degrees Fahrenheit, of crude 
petroleum or any of its products, or of illuminating oils made 
from coal or petroleum, and having an igniting point of less 
than one hundred and ten degrees Fahrenheit, and a town 
may affix penalties for breaches thereof, not exceeding fifty 
dollars for each offence, reasonable notice of which ordinances, 
by-laws, or regulations shall be given. Pub. Stats, ch. 102, 
§§ 69-75. 

§ 62. Towns which have adopted §§ 32-34 of chapter sixty 
of the Public Statutes shall appoint a superintendent of hay- 
scales and weigher of hay. Pub. Stats, ch. 60, § 32. Towns 
shall choose cullers of staves and hoops, in every maritime 
place from which staves are usually exported. Pub. Stats, 
ch. 60, § 41. Towns where lime is manufactured or im- 
ported, may choose inspectors of lime. Pub. Stats, ch. 60, 
§ 46. Towns shall choose measurers of wood and bark. 
Pub. Stats, ch. 60, § 72. Towns shall choose surveyors of 
lumber. Pub. Stats, ch. 63, § 6. 1 

1 The duties of these officers will be found more in detail in the following 
sections of the Public Statutes : superintendent of hay scales, ch. 60, §§ 32-40 ; 
cullers of staves, ch. 60, §§ 41-45; inspectors of lime, ch. 60, §§ 46-52; sur- 
veyors of lumber, ch. 63, §§ 6-18. 



GENERAL POWERS AND DUTIES OP TOWNS. 17 



(b) Town and City Libraries. 

§ 63. Any town or city may establish and maintain a 
public library therein, with or without branches, for the use 
of the inhabitants thereof, and may provide suitable rooms 
therefor, under such regulations for its government as may 
from time to time be prescribed by the inhabitants of the 
town or by the city council. 

§ 64. Any town may at a legal meeting grant and vote 
money for the establishment, maintenance, or increase of a 
public library therein, and for erecting or providing suitable 
buildings or rooms therefor ; and may receive, hold, and 
manage any devise, bequest, or donation for the establish- 
ment, increase, or maintenance of any such library. Pub. 
Stats, ch. 40, §§ 9, 10. 

§ 65. The city government of a city or the selectmen of a 
town, in which there is a public library, owned and main- 
tained by such city or town, may place in such library, for 
the use of the inhabitants, such books, reports, and laws as 
have been or may be received from the Commonwealth. Pub. 
Stats., ch. 40, § 11. The authority of a town is to " establish 
and maintain " a library, and under the statute the town has 
authority to print a catalogue. Eastman v. Allard, 149 Mass. 
154. 

§ 66. Every town which raises or appropriates money for 
the support of a free public library, or free public library and 
reading room that is owned by the town, shall at its annual 
meeting, or at a legal town meeting appointed and notified 
for that purpose by the selectmen, elect a board of trustees, 
except in cases where such library has been or may be acquired 
by the town, in whole or in part, by some donation or bequest 
containing other conditions or provisions for the elections of 
its trustees or for its care and management, which conditions 
have been accepted and agreed to by vote of the town. Sts. 
1888, ch. 304, § 1. 

§ 67. Said board of trustees shall consist of any number 
of persons divisible by three which the town may decide to 
elect, one third thereof to be elected annually and to continue 

2 



18 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

in office for three years, except that the town shall first elect 
one third of the trustees for one year, one third for two years, 
and one third for three years, and thereafter one third the num- 
ber annually for the term of three years. No person shall be 
ineligible to serve upon said board of trustees by reason of sex. 
Such board of trustees shall be elected by ballot, and shall organ- 
ize annually by the choice of a chairman and secretary from 
their own number : provided, any town having a free public 
library which has heretofore elected a board of trustees to 
manage the same, consisting of a number divisible by three, 
and has heretofore elected annually one third of said board for 
three years, may continue to elect annually one third of said 
board, and the trustees in office shall hold their offices until 
the term for which they were elected shall expire, unless the 
town shall vote otherwise. Sts. 1889, ch. 112. 

§ 68. If any person elected a member of the board of 
trustees, after being duly notified of his election in the man- 
ner in which town officers are required to be notified, refuses 
or neglects to accept said office, or if any member declines 
further service, or from change of residence or otherwise 
becomes unable to attend to the duties of the board, the 
remaining members shall in writing give notice of the fact 
to the selectmen of the town, and the two boards may, there- 
upon, after giving public notice of at least one week, proceed 
to fill such vacancy until the next annual town meeting ; and 
a majority of the ballots of persons entitled to vote shall be 
necessary to an election. 

§ 69. The trustees so elected by the town shall have the 
entire custody and management of the library and reading 
room, and all property owned by the town relating thereto ; 
and all money raised or appropriated by the town for its 
support and maintenance, and all money or property that the 
town may receive by donation from any source, or by bequest, 
in behalf of said free public library and reading room, shall 
be placed in the care and custody of the board of trustees, to 
be expended or retained by them for and in behalf of the 
town for the support and maintenance of its free public library 
and reading room, in accordance with the conditions of each 
or any donation or bequest accepted by the town. 



GENERAL POWERS AND DUTIES OF TOWNS. 19 

§ 70. In every town which shall, by a majority of the 
votes cast at its annual town meeting, or at a legal town 
meeting appointed and notified for that purpose by the select- 
men, so direct, the board of trustees shall, in addition to the 
officers named in the preceding section, elect from among 
their own number a treasurer, who shall give a bond to the 
town, similar to the bond given by the town treasurer, for 
such an amount and with such sureties as may be satisfactory 
to the selectmen ; and until a town directs otherwise, the 
town treasurer shall act as treasurer of the board of trustees. 

§ 71. The trustees shall make an explicit report to the 
town at each annual town meeting of all their receipts and 
expenditures, and of all the property of the town in their care 
and custody, including a statement of any unexpended balance 
of money they may have, and of any bequests or donations 
they may have received and are holding in behalf of the town, 
with such recommendations in reference to the same as they 
may deem necessary for the town to consider. 

§ 72. Nothing in this act shall be construed to interfere 
with library associations, nor with any library that is or may 
be organized and managed under special act of the legislature. 
Sts. 1888, ch. 304, §§ 3-7. 

§ 73. The board of library commissioners is hereby author- 
ized and directed to expend, upon the application of the board 
of library trustees of any town having no free public library 
owned and controlled by the town, a sum not exceeding one 
hundred dollars for books for any such town entitled to the 
benefits of this act ; such books to be used by said trustees 
for the purpose of establishing a free public library, and said 
commissioners shall select and purchase all books to be pro- 
vided as aforesaid. Sts. 1890, ch. 347, § 3. 

(c) The Poiver of Towns to Manufacture and Distribute 
Gas and Electricity. 
§ 74. Any city or town may, under the limitations of the 
following sections, construct, purchase, lease, or establish, and 
maintain within its limits one or more plants for the manu- 
facture or distribution of gas or electricity for furnishing 
light for municipal use, and for the use of such of its inhabi- 



20 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

tants as may require and pay for the same as herein provided. 
Such plants may include suitable land, structures, ease- 
ments, water privileges, stations, gasometers, boilers, engines, 
dynamos, tools, machinery, pipes, conduits, poles, conductors, 
burners, lamps, and other apparatus and appliances for mak- 
ing, generating, distributing, and using gas or electricity for 
lighting purposes. 

§ 75. No town shall exercise the authority conferred in 
the preceding section until after a vote that it is expedient to 
exercise such authority shall have been passed by a vote of 
not less than two thirds of the voters present and voting at 
each of two legal town meetings duly called for the purpose, 
of which meetings the second shall be held at an interval of 
not less than two nor more than thirteen months after the 
first. At such meetings such vote shall be taken by written 
or printed ballot and by the use of the check-list. When 
such a vote has failed of passage as hereinbefore provided at 
the second of said meetings, no similar vote shall be passed 
until after the expiration of two years thereafter. Sts. 1891, 
ch. 370, §§ 1, 3. 

§ 76. Whenever any town, or the city council of any city, 
shall vote upon the acceptance of the provisions stated in § 74 
ante, the clerk of such city or town shall forthwith forward 
to the board of gas and electric light commissioners a cer- 
tified abstract of so much of the records of said city council 
or town as pertains to the acceptance of, or refusal to accept, 
the provisions of said section. 

§ 77. Whenever in any city or town the votes contem- 
plated by § 75 ante, have been passed, and any subsequent 
votes are passed relative to establishing or purchasing a plant, 
or to reconstructing, extending, or enlarging the same, or for 
the issue of bonds on account of the. same, or concerning in 
any way the management or conduct thereof, or whenever any 
city or town shall adopt any ordinance or by-law concerning 
such plant, the clerk of said city or town shall, within ten 
days after the passage of such vote, or the adoption of such 
ordinance or by-law, forward to the board of gas and electric 
light commissioners a certified copy of every such vote, by-law, 
or ordinance. Sts. 1892, ch. 259, §§ 1, 2. 



GENERAL POWERS AND DUTIES OF TOWNS. 21 

§ 78. Any city or town establishing or purchasing a plant 
within its limits as provided in this act, or reconstructing, 
extending, or enlarging the same, as stated in the next section, 
may pay for the same by the issue of bonds, payable in a term 
not exceeding thirty years, and bearing interest at a rate not 
exceeding five per cent, which shall not be disposed of for less 
than par and accrued interest, and the indebtedness thereby 
created shall not be included in the limit of indebtedness of 
such city or town provided by law ; but such bonds shall not 
be issued until a vote authorizing the same has been passed by 
the vote as is required by § 103 post, and the whole amount 
of bonds so issued by a city or town, and outstanding, shall not 
exceed at their par value the amount of five per cent of the 
total valuation of estates therein in the case of a town, or two 
and one half per cent of such valuation in the case of a city 
according to the last preceding state valuation. The interest on 
such bonds and a sinking fund to meet the same at maturity 
shall be provided for as is required by § 105 post. No 
indebtedness shall be incurred by any city or town in connec- 
tion with such plant except as aforesaid, and excepting further 
that money may be borrowed under the provisions stated in 
§ 101 post, to pay the operating expenses thereof. All 
receipts from the sale of gas or electricity shall be paid over 
to the treasurer of such city or town. The gross expenses of 
running such plant and conducting such business of supplying 
gas or electric light, including interest on such bonds and 
requirements of the sinking fund as aforesaid, shall be included 
in the appropriations made annually or from time to time 
by such city or town, and shall be paid out of the treasury 
thereof. 

§ 79. Any city or town owning a plant for the manufacture 
or distribution of gas or electricity may reconstruct, extend 
or enlarge the same, but no such reconstruction, extension, or 
enlargement, beyond the necessary and ordinary maintenance, 
repair, and replacement thereof, except such increased appli- 
ances for the distribution of gas and electricity as may be 
necessary to furnish the same to new takers, shall be under- 
taken or made except by the vote provided by the preceding 
section in case of the issue of bonds. 



22 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

§ 80. Any city or town obtaining a plant may provide by 
ordinance, if a city, or by by-laws, if a town, for the equitable 
assessment upon the owner or occupant of any premises of 
any part or the whole of the cost of laying and maintaining 
upon such premises, pipes, conduits, conductors or other appli- 
ances for the distribution of gas or electricity to the occupants 
thereof. Payment of such assessments shall not be obliga- 
tory, but shall be made a condition precedent to the supply 
of gas or electricity to the occupants of such premises, and 
may be exacted before providing any such appliances for such 
distribution. 

§ 81. Any city or town having obtained a plant for the pur- 
pose, as provided in this act, may manufacture, generate, and 
distribute gas or electricity for furnishing light for municipal 
use or for the use of its inhabitants, under such regulations 
as it may establish. No city or town shall be compelled to 
furnish gas or electricity to any person or corporation except 
upon order of the gas and electric light commissioners and 
after payment of any assessment provided for in the preceding 
section. Any person or corporation aggrieved by the refusal 
of any city or town supplying gas or electricity under the 
authority of this act to furnish the same may appeal to such 
commissioners, setting forth in such appeal what is required 
of the city or town, in such detail as the commissioners may 
require. 

§ 82. Whenever any city or town shall obtain a plant 
as stated in § 74 ante, the operation, control, management 
and repair thereof, the manufacture, generation, and dis- 
tribution of gas and electricity thereby, including the pur- 
chase of supplies, the hiring and discharge of employees, 
and all business relating to such manufacture, generation, and 
distribution, to the methods, amounts,. times, prices and quality 
of the supply to each person and corporation, the collection of 
bills, the keeping of accounts and custody of moneys received 
for gas or electricity or otherwise, and the payment of bills 
incurred in said business, shall be entrusted, subject to any 
ordinances established by the city council in a city, or the 
by-laws or regulations established in a town, to one officer, 
who shall be appointed and may be removed by the mayor in 



GENERAL POWERS AND DUTIES OF TOWNS. 23 

a city, and by the selectmen in a town. Such officer shall be 
known as manager of gas, manager of electric light, or manager 
of gas and electric light, according as a plant for one or both 
may be under his charge. In cities, the compensation of such 
officer shall be annually fixed by the city council, and in towns 
by the selectmen. Before entering upon the duties of his office 
he shall give bond to the city or town for the faithful perform- 
ance of his duties in such sum and form and with such sureties 
as the mayor or selectmen shall approve. He shall at the end 
of each municipal year render to the mayor or selectmen such 
detailed statement of his doings and of the business and 
financial matters in his charge as the gas and electric light 
commissioners may prescribe. He shall also at any time, 
when required by the mayor or selectmen, make to him or 
them a statement of his doings, business, receipts, disburse- 
ments, balances, and of the indebtedness of the city or town 
in his department, in the detail required ; and he shall pay 
over to the treasurer of the city or town all receipts collected. 
§ 83. The books and accounts pertaining to the business 
authorized by this act shall be kept in a form to be prescribed 
by the board of gas and electric light commissioners, and the 
accounts shall be closed on the thirtieth day of June in each 
year, so that a balance sheet of that date can be taken there- 
from and included in the return to said board, which return 
shall be for the year ending the thirtieth day of June. The 
mayor or selectmen and manager shall annually, on or before 
the second Wednesday of September in each year, make a 
return to said board in a form prescribed by it, setting forth 
the financial condition of said business, the amount of indebt- 
edness authorized or existing on account thereof, a statement 
of income and expenses in such detail as the board may 
require, with a list of salaried officers employed in said business, 
and the amount of salary paid to each. Said return shall be 
signed and sworn to by the mayor or a majority of the select- 
men, and in both cities and towns by the manager. The 
mayor of a city or the selectmen of a town may direct, in 
addition, any additional returns to be made at such time and 
in such detail as they may order. The mayor or selectmen 
and manager shall also at all times, on request, submit said 



24 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

books and accounts for the inspection of said board, and 
furnish any statement or information required by the board 
concerning the condition, management, and operation of said 
business. 

§ 84. The price to be charged for gas or electricity to per- 
sons and corporations shall be fixed, and shall not be changed 
oftener than once in three months. Any change shall take 
effect on the first day of a month, and the new price adopted 
shall, before the change shall take effect, be advertised in some 
newspaper published in the city or town where the plant is, if 
any is published therein. Such price shall not, except with 
the written consent of the gas and electric light commissioners, 
be fixed at less than cost, in which shall be included, in addi- 
tion to all operating expenses, interest on the net investment' 
in plant made by the city or town, less assessments collected 
in the manner stated in § 80, at the rate paid upon the bonds 
above provided for, together with the requirements of the 
sinking fund established to meet such bonds, and also depre- 
ciation of the plant, to be reckoned at not less than five per 
cent per annum of its cost, and losses ; but any losses exceed- 
ing three per cent of the investment in plant may be charged 
in different years at not more than such three per cent per 
annum. Such price shall not be greater than shall allow 
above such cost a profit of eight per cent per annum to the 
city or town upon its net investment. In fixing such cost 
to establish the price to be charged to persons and corpora- 
tions the gas and electricity used by the city or town shall be 
charged to it at cost. A sufficient deposit to secure the pay- 
ment for gas or electricity for three months may be required 
in advance from any taker, and the supply may be shut off 
from any premises until all arrearages for gas or electricity 
furnished thereon, to whomsoever furnished, shall be paid. 
After three months default in the payment of such arrearages 
all appliances for distribution belonging to the city or town on 
such premises may be removed, and after such removal shall 
not be restored except on payment of all such arrearages, and 
a sufficient sum to cover all expenses caused by removal and 
restoration. Sts. 1891, ch. 370, §§ 4-10. 

§ 85. Whenever any city or town engaged in the business 



GENERAL POWERS AND DUTIES OF TOWNS. 25 

of selling gas or electric light, or both, to persons or corpora- 
tions, shall fix or change the price of such light, the manager 
of gas or electric light in such city or town shall send to the 
board of gas and electric light commissioners a certified copy 
of the notice announcing such price or change. Sts. 1892, 
ch. 259, § 3. 

§ 86. When any city or town shall decide as hereinbefore 
provided to establish a plant, and any person, firm, or cor- 
poration shall at the time of the first vote required for such 
decision be engaged in the business of making, generating, or 
distributing gas or electricity for sale for lighting purposes in 
such city or town, such city or town shall, if such person, 
firm, or corporation shall elect to sell and shall comply with 
the provisions of this act, purchase of such person, firm, or 
corporation before establishing a public plant such portion of 
his, their, or its gas or electric plant and property suitable and 
used for such business in connection therewith as lies within 
the limits of such city or town. If in such city or town a 
single corporation owns or operates both a gas plant and an 
electric plant, 'such purchase shall include both of such plants, 
but otherwise such city or town shall only be obliged to pur- 
chase the existing gas plant or plants if it has voted only to 
establish a gas plant, and shall only be obliged to purchase 
the existing electric plant or plants if it has only voted to 
establish an electric plant. If the main gas works, in the 
case of a gas plant, or the central lighting station, in the case 
of an electric light plant, lie within the limits of the city or 
town which has voted to establish a plant as aforesaid, such 
city or town shall purchase as herein provided the whole of 
such plant and property used in connection therewith, lying 
within its limits, and the price to be paid therefor shall be its 
fair market value for the purposes of its use, no portion of 
such plant to be estimated, however, at less than its fair market 
value for any other purpose, including as an element of value 
any locations or similar rights acquired from private persons 
in connection therewith, plus the damages suffered by the 
severance of any portion of such plant lying outside of the 
limits of such city or town, unless it shall refuse or neglect 
to purchase the same, and minus the amount of any mortgage 



26 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

or other encumbrance or lien to which the plant so purchased, 
or any part thereof, may be subject at the time of transfer of 
title ; but such city or town may require that such plant and 
property be transferred to it free and clear from any mortgage 
or lien, unless the commissioners appointed under the provi- 
sions of section thirteen of this act shall otherwise determine. 
Such value shall be estimated without enhancement on account 
of future earning capacity, or good will, or of exclusive privi- 
leges derived from rights in the public streets. If the main 
gas works or central lighting station of such a plant do not 
lie within the limits of the city or town which has voted as 
aforesaid, then such city or town shall only purchase that 
portion of such plant and property which lies within its limits, 
paying therefor upon the basis of value above established, but 
without allowance of damages on account of severance of 
plant. No city or town shall be obligated by this section to 
buy any apparatus or appliances covered by letters patent of 
the United States or embodying a patentable invention unless 
a complete right to use the same and all other apparatus or 
appliances necessary for such use within the limits of such 
city or town to such extent as such city or town shall rea- 
sonably require such right, shall be assigned or granted to 
such city or town at a cost as low as the cost of such right 
would be to the person, firm, or corporation whose plant is 
purchased. 

No town shall be obliged to buy any property added to a 
plant unnecessarily after the passage of its vote to exercise the 
authority conferred in § 74, nor any property except such as 
shall be suitable for the business which the town may assume ; 
and if any property or plant which the town shall be entitled 
or obliged to buy will not be available if purchased, by reason 
of liens or other cause, the town may be released from buying 
it, or a discount may be made from the price to be paid. Sts. 
1893, ch. 454, § 5. 

§ 87. Whenever the existing gas plant or electric plant of 
any person or corporation shall have been acquired by any 
city or town pursuant to the provisions of this act, the powers 
and rights of such person or corporation in relation to the 
manufacture and distribution of gas or electricity within the 



GENERAL POWERS AND DUTIES OF TOWNS. 27 

limits of such city or town shall, from and after the date of 
such acquirement, cease and determine. 

§ 88. Any city or town owning or operating a plant or 
plants for the manufacture or distribution of gas or electricity 
for furnishing light under this act, shall be responsible for any 
injury or damage to persons or property, happening or arising 
by reason of the maintenance or operation of the same, in the 
same manner and to the same extent as though the same were 
owned and, operated by an individual or private corporation ; 
but nothing in this act shall be construed to include damages 
to any existing gas or electric plant in a city or town by 
reason of the establishment of a competing line or plant 
under authority of this act. 

§ 89. All general laws of the Commonwealth, and ail ordi- 
nances or by-laws of any city or town availing itself of the 
provisions of this act relative to the manufacture, use, genera- 
tion, or distribution of gas or electricity, or the quality thereof, 
or plant or the appliances therefor, shall apply to such city or 
town, so far as the same may be applicable and not inconsist- 
ent with this act, in the same manner as the same apply to 
persons and corporations engaged in making, generating, or 
distributing gas or electricity therein. 

§ 90. Nothing herein shall be construed to take away, re- 
strict, or impair any rights of any city, town, or other authority, 
which may now exist to revoke locations of wires, poles, con- 
duits, or pipes in, over, or under their streets or ways : provided, 
however, that no city or town having within its limits the 
main gas works, in the case of a gas plant, or the central 
lighting station, in the case of an electric light plant, or the 
major portion of the wires, poles, conduits, or pipes used in 
connection with any such works or plants, shall, except for a 
violation of the terms or conditions upon which the same were 
granted, or for a violation of law respecting the exercise 
thereof, revoke any rights heretofore granted, or which may 
hereafter be granted, to any person or corporation engaged in 
the business of making, generating, or distributing gas or 
electricity for sale for lighting purposes, after the first passage 
by the city council, in the case of a city, of the vote provided 
for, or while such vote is pending in either branch thereof, or 



28 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

in the case of a town, after the passage of the first vote as 
stated in § 75 ante, or after the calling of a town-meeting 
at which the passage of such vote is included in the war- 
rant : provided, hoivever, that in case in either a city or 
town the second vote provided for by this act shall fail of 
passage, or in a city shall fail to receive the approval of the 
mayor or the ratification of the voters in accordance with this 
act, then such city or town may exercise all rights of revoca- 
tion, if any, which it possessed prior to the passage of such 
first vote until such first vote is again passed, or pending or 
included in the warrant as above provided. And after the 
passage and ratification of both votes by a city, and after the 
passage of both votes in the manner stated in § 75 ante by a 
town, no such city or town shall, except as hereinbefore pro- 
vided, revoke any rights, locations, or licenses granted to any 
such person or corporation. The provisions of this section 
shall apply, in the case of a city, whether such revocation 
shall be made by both branches of the city government or by 
one branch. Sts. 1891, ch. 370, §§ 15-18 ; Sts. 1893, ch. 454. 

(d) Town Subscriptions to Railroads. 

§ 91. Any town within which the road of a railroad corpo- 
ration organized after the first day of February in the year 
eighteen hundred and seventy-five, or the road of a railroad 
corporation then existing and whose road was not then con- 
structed, is located or terminates, and any such city having 
by the census of the year eighteen hundred and seventy less 
than thirty thousand inhabitants, may subscribe for and hold 
shares of the capital stock of the securities of any or all such 
corporations, to an amount not exceeding, for the aggregate 
in all such corporations, two per cent of the valuation of such 
city or town for the year in which the subscription is made ; 
and any such town having a valuation not exceeding three 
millions of dollars may so subscribe for and hold the securities 
of such corporations, or either of them, to an additional 
amount not exceeding one per cent of the valuation of such 
town in the year in which the subscription is made : provided, 
that two thirds of the legal voters in such city or town, present 
and voting by ballot and using the check-list, at legal meetings 



GENERAL POWERS AND DUTIES OF TOWNS. 29 

called for the purpose and held in like manner as the meetings 
for the choice of municipal officers are held therein, vote so to 
subscribe. Nothing in this section shall be construed to 
authorize a city or town to make subscriptions to a greater 
amount than is stated in § 111 post. 

§ 92. A city or town, by vote passed in accordance with 
the provisions of the preceding section, may become an asso- 
ciate under section thirty-four of chapter 112 Public Statutes 
in the formation of a railroad corporation to construct a road 
located or terminating therein, with all the powers and privi- 
leges enjoyed by an individual associate. 

§ 93. The form in which the matters provided for in the 
two preceding sections shall be voted upon shall be determined 
in cities by a concurrent vote of both branches of the city 
council, and in towns by the selectmen ; and whenever a city 
or town has voted to subscribe to such stock or securities, or 
to become an associate in the formation of such corporation, 
the mayor and aldermen or the selectmen shall select some 
person, who may in behalf of the city or town execute its vote. 

§ 94. A subscription authorized by vote as is stated in 
§ 91 ante, shall be void, unless actually made by the persons 
authorized within twelve months from said vote ; and unless, 
within the said period a part thereof is actually paid, or some 
proceeding is commenced by the corporation to enforce pay- 
ment thereof, and at least twenty per cent of the capital stock 
of the corporation is actually paid in cash, and at least ten 
per cent of the capital stock is actually expended by it in the 
construction of its road. 

§ 95. Towns and cities so subscribing for stock or securi- 
ties may raise money to pay for the same by tax, or, within 
the limits stated in § 111 post by loan, and may issue their 
notes or bonds for such loan, and may hold and dispose of 
such stock and securities in like manner as other town 
property ; and the selectmen of towns, and such persons as 
may be authorized by the city councils of cities, may rep- 
resent their respective municipalities at all meetings of the 
corporations in which the stock or securities are held, and 
vote upon all the shares of stock owned by them respectively. 
Pub. Stats, ch. 112, §§ 46-50. 



30 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

(e) Municipal Indebtedness. 

§ 96. Cities and towns shall not incur debts except in the 
manner of voting, and within the limitations as to amount and 
time of payment, prescribed in the following sections. 

§ 97. In ascertaining the amount of indebtedness of a city 
or town for the purposes of this chapter, debts created for 
supplying the inhabitants with water shall be omitted, and the 
amount of its sinking-funds shall be deducted. 

§ 98. The provisions set forth in §§ 96-110 do not apply to 
debts lawfully incurred in aid of railroad corporations, or to 
water-scrip lawfully issued by a town under special statutes, for 
the indebtedness of a fire district. Pub. Stats, ch. 29, §§ 1-3. 

§ 99. No city or town, except as provided in the following 
section, shall become indebted in an amount which exceeds 
three per cent on the last preceding valuation, for the assess- 
ment of taxes, of the taxable property therein, except damages 
paid for alteration of grade crossings. Pub. Stats, ch. 29, § 4 ; 
Sts. 1892, ch. 178. 

§ 100. Cities and towns which were indebted on the 
thirteenth day of June in the year eighteen hundred and 
seventy -five to an amount not less than two per cent on the 
valuation for said year, for the assessment of taxes, of the 
taxable property therein, may, within the limitations as to 
the manner of voting the same and time of payment pre- 
scribed in this chapter, increase such indebtedness to the 
extent of an additional one per cent on that valuation, and 
no more. Pub. Stats., ch. 29, § 5, 

§ 101. Cities and towns may, by ordinary vote, incur debts 
for temporary loans in anticipation of the taxes of the munici- 
pal year in which such debts are incurred and expressly made 
payable therefrom by vote of the city, or town. Sts. 1889, 
ch. 372. 

§ 102. Debts incurred by cities and towns for temporary 
loans in anticipation of the taxes of the municipal year in 
which such debts are incurred and expressly made payable 
therefrom by vote of the city or town, shall become due and 
payable within one year from the date of their incurrence. 
Sts. 1891, ch. 221, 



GENERAL POWERS AND DUTIES OP TOWNS. 31 

§ 103. Other debts than those mentioned in the two pre- 
ceding sections shall be incurred only by a vote of two thirds 
of the voters present and voting at a town meeting, or of two 
thirds of all the members of each branch of the city council, 
taken by yeas and nays and approved by the mayor ; or, if he 
disapproves such vote, by another like vote taken after notice 
of such disapproval, which notice shall be given within ten 
days from the time in which the vote of the city council is 
laid before the mayor ; and if the mayor fails to give such 
notice to the branch of the city council in which such vote 
was first taken, he shall be deemed to have approved such 
vote. Pub. Stats., ch. 29, § 7. 

This statute deprives cities and towns of the authority to 
contract debts for borrowed money, which they had previously 
possessed, whether derived from express grant or held to exist 
as an implied power ; and, instead of it, gives to these munici- 
palities a limited power, which can be lawfully exercised only 
in the mode specially pointed out. It contains a positive pro- 
hibition of all debts contracted for borrowed money in any 
other mode ; therefore an action cannot be maintained against 
a town on a promissory note given by its treasurer for bor- 
rowed money, unless the vote of the town authorizing the 
treasurer to borrow money shows either that the debt was in 
anticipation of the taxes of the year in which the debt was 
incurred, and of the year next ensuing, and expressly made 
payable therefrom, or that the vote was passed by two thirds 
of the legal voters present and voting at a legal meeting. 
Agaivam National Bank v. South Hadley, 128 Mass. 503. 

§ 104. All debts mentioned in the preceding section shall 
be payable within the following periods : namely, debts 
incurred in supplying the inhabitants with water, within not 
exceeding thirty years ; debts incurred in constructing sewers, 
within not exceeding thirty years ; and all other debts within 
not exceeding ten years. Sts. 1892, ch. 245, § 6. 

§ 105. The interest on all debts shall be raised by taxation 
annually. When a debt is payable at a period exceeding ten 
years, the city or town shall, and when payable at a period 
not exceeding ten years may, at the time of contracting the 
same, establish a sinking-fund, and contribute thereto from 



32 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

year to year an amount raised annually by taxation sufficient 
with its accumulations to extinguish the debt at maturity ; 
and when payable at a period not exceeding ten years, the 
city or town shall raise by taxation annually not less than 
eight per cent of the principal thereof, and shall set apart the 
same for a sinking-fund until an amount is raised sufficient 
with its accumulations to extinguish the debt at its maturity ; 
and shall raise any balance necessary for such extinguishment, 
by taxation, in the year before the maturity of the debt. No 
such sinking-fund shall be used for any other purpose than 
the payment and redemption of such debt. 

§ 106. A town establishing a sinking-fund under the pro- 
visions of this chapter shall, at the time of establishing the 
same, elect by ballot three or six commissioners of its sinking- 
funds; and a city establishing such a fund shall elect such 
commissioners by a concurrent vote of both branches of the 
city council. One third of the number shall be elected for 
one, two, and three years respectively : and annually there- 
after there shall be elected, for a term of three years, a 
number equal to the number whose term of service then 
expires. Yacancies occurring in the board shall, in towns, 
be filled by the remaining member or members and the select- 
men, by a majority of ballots of the officers so entitled to 
vote, at a meeting called for the purpose by the selectmen ; 
and in cities by the city council in the maimer herein pro- 
vided for the election of the commissioners. The remaining 
member or members shall in case of a vacancy exercise the 
powers of the board until the vacancy is filled. The city or 
town treasurer shall not be eligible as such commissioner, and 
the acceptance of the office of treasurer by a commissioner 
already elected shall operate as a resignation of the office of 
commissioner. But the foregoing provisions as to the mode 
of electing commissioners and filling vacancies shall not apply 
to boards of sinking-fund commissioners established before 
the thirteenth day of June in the year eighteen hundred and 
seventy-five. 

The commissioners shall choose a treasurer, who may be 
the city or town treasurer ; and if the city or town treasurer 
is chosen, his bond shall apply to and include duties performed 



GENERAL POWERS AND DUTIES OF TOWNS. 33 

under this chapter. If any other person is chosen treasurer, 
he shall give a bond, with sureties, to the satisfaction of the 
commissioners, for the proper discharge of the duties of his 
office. 

§ 107. The commissioners shall receive all sums contrib- 
uted to a sinking-fund, and shall invest and reinvest the 
same, and the income thereof as it accrues, in the name of 
the board, in the particular scrip, notes, or bonds for the 
redemption of which such sinking-fund was established, or 
in other bonds of such city or town secured by sinking-funds, 
or in the securities in which by law the funds of savings 
banks may be invested (except personal securities) ; but no 
portion of the same shall be loaned to the city or town except 
as herein provided ; and the commissioners may sell and rein- 
vest such securities when required in their judgment. They 
shall keep a record of their proceedings ; and shall annually, 
at the time when other municipal officers are required to 
make their annual reports, make a written report to the city 
or town of the amount and condition of said funds, and of 
the income thereof for the preceding financial year. The 
record of and the securities belonging to said funds shall at 
all times be subject to the inspection of the selectmen, mayor, 
and aldermen, or of any committee of the city or town duly 
authorized for the purpose. The necessary expenses of the 
board shall be paid by the city or town ; and the treasurer 
and secretary thereof shall receive such compensation as 
shall be fixed by the city or town, but no commissioner shall 
receive compensation for his services. 

When securities issued by a city or town become a part of 
its sinking-fund, the commissioners shall cause to be stamped 
or written on the face thereof a notice that they are a part of 
such sinking-fund, and are not negotiable ; and all coupons 
thereof, as they become due and are paid, shall be cancelled. 

§ 108. Each city and town which was indebted on the 
thirteenth day of June in the year eighteen hundred and 
seventy -five, to an amount exceeding five per cent on the valua- 
tion for said year, for the assessment of taxes, of the taxable 
property therein, shall establish a sinking-fund and contribute 
thereto from year to year an amount raised annually by taxa- 

3 



34 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

tion sufficient with its accumulations to extinguish the debt 
within thirty years from said date ; and each city and town 
which was then indebted to an amount less than five per cent 
and more than one per cent on such valuation shall establish 
a sinking-fund and contribute thereto as above provided, so as 
to extinguish the debt within twenty years from said date ; 
subject, however, in both cases, to the provisions of the follow- 
ing section. 

§ 109. In establishing and contributing to the sinking-funds 
mentioned in the preceding section, it shall be sufficient to 
provide for the extinguishment, at their maturity, of funded 
debts existing on the thirteenth day of Jane in the year 
eighteen hundred and seventy-five, and for the extinguish- 
ment within thirty years from said date of debts then existing 
and contracted for supplying the inhabitants with water. 

§ 110. Nothing contained in the preceding sections shall 
be construed as prohibiting the inhabitants of towns, or city 
councils, from paying or providing for the payment of any 
debt at earlier periods than is therein required ; or from 
renewing the same in securities payable within the period 
required for the final payment of the debt ; or from adding to 
any sinking-funds the excess of any appropriation over the 
amount required for the purpose thereof, or any sums derived 
from taxation or from other sources which are not required 
by law to be otherwise expended ; and such additions may be 
made for the purpose of reducing the entire debt for the 
redemption of which the sinking-fund was established, or of 
reducing the amount to be raised by taxation for such fund. 
Pub. Stats., ch. 29, §§ 9-14. 

§ 111. No city or town shall, for the purpose of subscribing 
in aid of a railroad corporation, increase its indebtedness to an 
amount which with its existing net indebtedness, incurred for 
any purpose, exceeds three per cent of the valuation of the 
taxable property therein, to be ascertained by the last prece- 
ding city or town valuation for the assessment of taxes ; but 
the limitation of this section shall not apply to temporary 
loans in anticipation of the taxes of the year in which such 
debts are incurred and of the year next ensuing, and expressly 
made payable from such taxes by vote of the said city or town. 



GENERAL POWERS AND DUTIES OP TOWNS. 35 

§ 112. A city or town owing debts incurred in aid of a 
railroad corporation may, for the purpose of paying the same, 
establish a sinking-fund, which shall be subject to the provi- 
sions stated in §§ 106 and 107 ante, and may contribute 
thereto any sums received from sales of the stock or securities 
of such corporations, or from dividends- or interest upon the 
same, or from taxes voted for the payment of such indebted- 
ness ; and may transfer the custody and management of such 
stock and securities to the commissioners of such sinking- 
fund. 

§ 113. A city or town having a sinking-fund for the pay- 
ment of its general indebtedness, under the provisions of this 
chapter, may, by a vote of the inhabitants of such town, or of 
the city council of such city, provide that the commissioners 
of such sinking-fund shall be the commissioners of the sinking- 
fund under the preceding section. 

§ 114. A city or town owing debts described in § 112, shall 
annually raise by taxation a sum sufficient, with the income, 
if any, derived from its stock or securities there mentioned, 
to pay the interest on such debts. 

§ 115. A city or town which recalls and pays any of its 
securities, under rights reserved therein, may issue, in place 
of securities so recalled and paid, other securities payable at 
periods within the maturity of those originally issued. Such 
new securities shall, for debts created before the twenty-eighth 
day of May in the year eighteen hundred and seventy-six, be 
made payable within thirty years from the thirteenth day of 
June in the year eighteen hundred and seventy-five ; and shall, 
for debts created after said twenty-eighth day of May, be made 
payable within thirty years from the time of contracting the 
same. Pub. Stats., ch. 29, §§ 19-23. 

§ 116. Any city or town required by the preceding sections, 
to establish a sinking-fund for the payment of its indebted- 
ness may, instead thereof, by a majority vote provide for 
the payment of such indebtedness in such annual proportion- 
ate payments as will extinguish the same within the time 
prescribed in said sections ; and when such vote has been 
heretofore or shall be hereafter passed, the amount required 
thereby shall, without further vote, be assessed by the assessors 



86 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

in each year thereafter, until the debt shall be extinguished, 
in the same manner as other taxes are assessed. Sts. 1882, 
ch. 133, § 1. 

§ 117. Any city or town which has already incurred or 
shall hereafter incur a debt under the provisions of the pre- 
ceding sections may issue notes, bonds, or scrip therefor, 
properly denominated on the face thereof, and signed by its 
treasurer and countersigned in case of a city by its mayor, 
and in case of a town by a majority of its board of selectmen, 
and within the limitations as to amount and time of payment 
prescribed in said sections, with interest payable semiannually 
at a rate not exceeding six per cent per annum ; and may sell 
said notes, bonds, or scrip at public or private sale, or use the 
same in payment of such debts upon such terms and conditions 
as it may deem proper, provided that said notes, bonds, and 
scrip shall not be sold at less than par. Sts. 1884, ch. 129. 

Cemeteries and Burials. 

§ 118. Each town and city shall provide one or more 
suitable places for the interment of persons dying within its 
limits. 

§ 119. When there is a necessity for a new burial-ground 
in a town, or for the enlargement of a burial-ground already 
existing in and belonging to a town, and the owner or any per- 
son interested in the land needed for either purpose refuses 
to sell the same, or demands therefor a price deemed unrea- 
sonable by the selectmen of the town, or is unable for any 
reason to convey the land, the selectmen may, with the appro- 
bation of the town, make application therefor by written 
petition to the commissioners of the county wherein the land 
is situated. Pub. Stats, ch. 82, §§ 9, 10. 

§ 120. Towns may grant and vote such sums as they 
may judge necessary for enclosing any cemetery provided by 
them according to law, or constructing paths and avenues and 
embellishing the grounds in the same, and may establish all 
necessary rules in relation thereto not repugnant to law. 
They may lay out such cemetery into lots, and shall set apart 
a suitable portion as a public burial-place for the use of the 
inhabitants, free of charge. They may sell and convey to any 



GENERAL POWERS AND DUTIES OF TOWNS. 37 

persons, whether residents of the towns or otherwise, the exclu- 
sive right of burial and of erecting tombs and cenotaphs upon 
any lot, and of ornamenting the same upon such terms, condi- 
tions, and regulations as they shall prescribe ; and the proceeds 
of such sales shall be paid into town treasuries, and be kept 
separate and apart from other funds, and be appropriated to 
reimburse the towns for the cost of the land, or of the im- 
provement and embellishment thereof. 

§ 121. No city or town shall alienate, convey, or appro- 
priate to any other use than that of a burial-ground, any tract 
of land which has been for more than one hundred years used 
as a place of burial of the dead ; and no portion of such burial- 
ground shall be taken for any public use without special author- 
ity from the legislature ; but this section shall not apply in 
any case where the town had given its consent to such use, 
or where special authority therefor had been granted by the 
legislature, prior to the twenty-eighth day of April in the year 
eighteen hundred and eighty. 

§ 122. Any person holding, occupying, or interested in a 
lot in a public burial-place of a city or town may deposit with 
the treasurer of such city or town a sum of money not exceed- 
ing five hundred dollars for the purpose of providing for the 
preservation and care of such lot or its appurtenances ; which 
sum shall be entered upon the books of the treasurer, and 
held in accordance with the provisions of the ordinances or 
by-laws of such city or town in relation to burials. A city or 
town may pass such ordinances or by-laws as may be neces- 
sary for the purposes of this section, and not repugnant to 
law ; and may receive such money for said purposes, and may 
allow interest thereon at a rate not exceeding six per cent a 
year. Pub. Stats, ch. 82, §§ 15-17. 

§ 123. No highway or town way shall be laid out or con- 
structed in, upon, or through an enclosure used or appro- 
priated for the burial of the dead, unless authority to that 
effect is specially granted by law, or the consent of the inhabi- 
tants of the town where such enclosure is situated is first 
obtained. 

§ 124. No highway or town way shall be laid out or con- 
structed in, upon, or through such part of an enclosure belong- 



38 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

ing to private proprietors, as may be used or appropriated to 
the burial of the dead, unless the consent of such proprietors 
is first obtained. Pub. Stats, ch. 82, §§ 29, 30. 

§ 125. Any town which shall adopt the provisions of 
chapter 264 of the Acts of 1890, may elect, at a properly 
called town meeting, a board of three commissioners of burial- 
grounds, who shall have general charge of all matters per- 
taining to burial-grounds and burials. And a town which 
adopts this act may receive donations, gifts or bequests for 
maintaining cemeteries and cemetery lots, and these gifts or 
bequests shall be paid into the town treasury, and be under the 
charge of the town treasurer. Sts. 1890, ch. 264. 

Forests and Parks. 

§ 126. The voters of a town at a meeting properly called, 
may vote to purchase land within the limits of the town, to be 
devoted to the preservation, reproduction, and culture of forest 
trees for the sake of the wood and timber, or for the preserva- 
tion of the water supply of the town. Sts. 1882, ch. 255. 

§ 127. A town which accepts the provisions of chapter 154 
of the Acts of 1882 may, at a legal meeting called for the 
purpose, elect a board of park commissioners consisting of 
three persons. This board may take by gift, purchase, devise, 
or otherwise, lands desirable for public parks, and they shall 
have charge of all matters connected with parks. Sts. 1882, 

ch. 154. 

Payment of State Aid. 

§ 128. Any city or town may raise money for the purposes 
of this act ; and the treasurers thereof may, under the direc- 
tion of the mayor and aldermen or the selectmen thereof, 
under the following conditions pay state aid to, or expend it 
for, any worthy person having a residence and actually resid- 
ing in such city or town who is not receiving aid from any 
other state, nor from any other city or town in this state, and 
who shall be in such necessitous circumstances as to require 
further public assistance, and who shall belong to either of 
the following classes, to wit : First Class. Invalid pensioners 
of the United States who served in the army or navy of the 
United States between the nineteenth day of April in the year 



GENERAL POWERS AND DUTIES OF TOWNS. 6\) 

eighteen hundred and sixty-one and the first day of September 
in the year eighteen hundred and sixty-five, to the credit of 
the state of Massachusetts ; or in such army or navy in the 
military organizations of this state known as three months' 
men, ninety clays' men, or one hundred days' men, mustered 
into the United States service in the months of April, May, 
June or July in the year eighteen hundred and sixty-one, or 
April, May, July, or August in the year eighteen hundred and 
sixty-four ; — or who, having their residence and actually resid- 
ing in this state at the time of their enlistment, served to the 
credit of any other state in such army or navy, between the 
nineteenth day of April in the year eighteen hundred and 
sixty-one and the eighteenth day of March in the year eighteen 
hundred and sixty-two ; which pensioners have been honorably 
discharged from their said service in the army or navy and 
are so far disabled by such service as to prevent them from 
following their ordinary and usual vocations. Second Class. 
Dependent relatives of soldiers or sailors who have served in 
the manner and under the limitations described for the service 
of invalid pensioners of the first class, and have, if not dying 
in such service, been honorably discharged therefrom, as fol- 
lows : namely, the widows and widowed mothers of soldiers 
or sailors dying in such service, or dying after their honorable 
discharge therefrom, or dying while in receipt of a pension 
of the United States and the state aid of this state, and the 
wives and widowed mothers of invalid pensioners of the first 
class receiving from the United States at least one-half the 
amount allowed for total disability. Third Class. Dependent 
relatives of soldiers or sailors who have served in the manner 
and under the limitations described for the service of invalid 
pensioners of the first class, who appear on the rolls of their 
respective regiments or companies, in the oftice of the adjutant- 
general, to be missing or to have been captured by the enemy, 
and who have not been exchanged, and have not returned 
from captivity, and who are not known to be alive, as follows : 
namely, the widows or wives and widowed mothers of such 
soldiers or sailors : provided, that no such relative of any such 
soldier or sailor shall belong to this class or be aided as such if 
the municipal authorities granting the aid shall have good and 



40 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

sufficient reason to believe that such soldier or sailor deserted, 
or that he is still living and wilfully absent from his family. 
Fourth Class. Persons who were receiving state aid as de- 
pendent fathers or mothers, prior to the eleventh day of April 
in the year eighteen hundred and sixty-seven, and were pre- 
cluded therefrom by the provisions of the act of that date : 
provided, the mayor and aldermen or selectmen shall in each 
case be satisfied, on evidence first reported to the commission- 
ers of state aid and satisfactory to them, that justice and 
necessity require a continuance of the aid to prevent actual 
suffering. 

§ 129. No wife or widow of any discharged soldier or 
sailor shall be held to belong to either of the foregoing classes 
or be aided as such under this act unless, if his wife, she was 
married to him prior to his final discharge from the service 
aforesaid, and, if his widow, she was married to him prior to 
the ninth day of April in the year eighteen hundred and 
eighty. No person receiving military aid shall also receive 
state aid. The words " pensioners," " soldiers " and " sailors," 
singular or plural, used in this act shall be held to include 
commissioned officers. 

§ 130. All persons specifically referred to and to or for 
whom state aid is paid under any special act or resolve passed 
since the first day of June in the year eighteen hundred and 
seventy-nine, or to or for whom state aid was then being paid 
under any special act or resolve then repealed, shall be held 
to belong to the first or second classes under this act, — 
namely, soldiers and sailors to the first class, and dependent 
relatives of soldiers and sailors to the second class, — not- 
withstanding the limitations of such classes ; and state aid 
may be paid to or for such persons in the manner and under 
the same limitations that it is paid to or for other persons of 
their respective classes under this act: provided, that no aid 
shall be paid to or for any person under this section contrary 
to any limitation or condition expressed in the original special 
act or resolve authorizing state aid to be paid to or for such 
person. All special acts and resolves granting state aid are 
hereby repealed except so far as they authorize the payment 
of military aid as provided in section eleven of an act entitled, 



GENERAL POWERS AND DUTIES OF TOWNS. 41 

An Act relative to military aid, of the Acts of 1889 : provided, 
that this section shall not be held to apply to any special act 
or resolve specifically granting a fixed amount or an annual 
sum to any soldier or sailor or the dependent relative of any 
soldier or sailor for life or a term therein specified. 

§ 131. No state aid shall be paid under this act to or for 
any person of the first class to an amount exceeding three 
fourths of the monthly amount of his pension, nor more than six 
dollars in any one month ; and if pensioned as a commissioned 
officer he shall only be paid such proportion of state aid as he 
would be entitled to receive if his pension were based upon 
the rank of a private. No state aid shall be paid under this 
act to or for any person of the second, third, or fourth classes 
to an amount exceeding four dollars in any one month ; and 
no more than eight dollars shall be paid to or for all the de- 
pendent relatives of any one soldier or sailor in any one month. 

§ 132. All aid furnished under this act shall be paid to or 
for the persons for whom it is intended, for their future bene- 
fit ; and no assignment thereof shall be valid or recognized, 
and it shall not be subject to trustee process. No back state 
aid shall be paid. No greater sum shall be paid to or for any 
person under this act than shall be necessary to furnish such 
person reasonable relief ; and no aid shall be paid under its 
provisions to or for any person competent to support himself 
or herself, or in receipt of income, or in ownership of prop- 
erty, sufficient for his or her own support, nor to or for any 
person more than is necessary in addition to the income and 
property of such person for his or her personal relief ; and 
no aid shall be paid under this act to any person not in such 
necessitous circumstances as to require further public assist- 
ance. No aid shall be paid under this act to or for any 
pensioner or dependent relative when the necessity therefor 
arises from the continuance in vicious or intemperate habits 
of said pensioner or of the soldier or sailor on whose account 
the same is paid. No aid shall be paid under this act to or 
for any person convicted of any criminal offence, unless or 
until the municipal authorities and the commissioners of state 
aid otherwise determine. 

§ 133. Persons making application for aid in any city or 



42 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

town under this act shall, as a basis for the first payment 
thereof, state in writing, under oath, the age and residence of 
the party for whom such aid is claimed ; the relation of the 
claimant to the party who rendered the service for which aid 
is claimed ; the company and regiment, or the vessel, if any, 
in which the officer, soldier, or sailor enlisted and in which he 
last served ; the date and place of such enlistment, when 
known ; the duration of such service and the reason upon 
which the claim for aid is founded ; and furnish such official 
certificates of record, evidence of enlistment, service and dis- 
charge as may be required. Municipal authorities granting 
to such claimant any subsequent aid shall from time to time 
make such investigation into the necessities of said claimant 
and the facts of the case as to preclude any payment thereof 
contrary to the terms of this act. The original papers in 
each case shall be filed with the commissioners of state aid 
if required. It shall be the duty of the auditor to furnish 
from time to time to each city and town a sufficient number 
of blank forms for the use of applicants for aid under this 
act. Sts. 1889, ch. 301, §§ 1-6. 

§ 134. When any sum shall have been expended under 
and according to this act, the full amount so expended, the 
ages and names of the persons aided, and the classes to which 
they severally belong, and the several sums paid to or for each 
person and the reasons for the expenditure in each case, and 
the names of the persons on account of whose services the 
aid was granted, and the names of the regiments and vessels, 
if any, in which they respectively enlisted and in which they 
last served, and the relationship of each dependent relative 
aided to the person on account of whose services the aid was 
granted, with such other details as the commissioners of state 
aid may require, shall be certified under oath to the auditor in 
manner approved by him, by the mayor, treasurer, and city 
clerk of any city, or by a majority of the selectmen of any 
town, disbursing the same, within ten days after the first day 
of the month next after the expenditure is made. 

The sums legally paid as aforesaid, and allowed and indorsed 
by the commissioners of state aid, shall be reimbursed 
from the treasury of the Commonwealth to the several towns 



GENERAL POWERS AND DUTIES OF TOWNS. 43 

and cities expending the same, on or before the first day of 
December in the year next after the year in which the same 
have been paid, but none of the expenses attending the pay- 
ment of state aid shall be reimbursed. 

§ 135. The provisions of this act shall continue in force 
until the first day of January in the year eighteen hundred 
and ninety-five and no longer, and so far as they are the 
same as those of existing laws shall be construed as a con- 
tinuation thereof : provided, however, that such provisions of 
this act as relate to the settlement of accounts for payment 
of aid rendered by cities and towns previous to said date, 
and to reimbursement therefor, shall continue in force one 
year and no longer after said date. Sts. 1889, ch. 301, §§ 8, 9. 

§ 136. Whenever any person who served in the army or 
navy of the United States in the war of the rebellion and 
received an honorable discharge from all enlistments therein, 
and who has a legal settlement in a city or town in the 
Commonwealth, becomes, from any cause except his own 
criminal or wilful misconduct, poor and entirely or in part 
unable to provide maintenance for himself, his wife and minor 
children under the age of sixteen years ; or whenever such a 
person has died and left a widow or such minor children with- 
out proper means of support, such person, his wife or widow, 
or such minor children shall be supported wholly or in part, 
as may be necessary, by the city or town in which they or 
either of them have a legal settlement. Such relief shall be 
furnished by the mayor and aldermen of such city, or the 
selectmen of such town at the home of the beneficiary, or 
at such other place as they may deem right and proper. But 
no beneficiary shall be required to receive such relief at any 
almshouse or public institution unless the physical or mental 
condition of such beneficiary shall require it, or unless such 
beneficiary shall choose to do so ; the choice to be made in 
case of a minor by the parent or guardian of such minor. In 
all printed reports of the expenses for such relief by the cities 
and towns under this section said expenses shall be designated 
as soldiers' relief. Sts. 1890, ch. 447. 



44 the town officer. 

Abuse of Corporate Powers by Towns. 

§ 137. When a town votes to raise by taxation or pledge 
of its credit, or to pay from its treasury, any money for a 
purpose other than those for which it has the legal right and 
power, the supreme judicial court may upon the suit or peti- 
tion of not less than ten taxable inhabitants thereof, briefly 
setting forth the cause of complaint, hear and determine the 
same in equity. Any justice of said court may in term time 
or vacation issue injunctions and make such orders and decrees 
as may be necessary or proper to restrain or prevent a viola- 
tion or abuse of such legal right and power, before the final 
determination of the cause bv said court. Pub. Stats., ch. 27, 
§129. 

The remedy given above need not be resorted to till money 
is about to be paid illegally out of the town treasury. " It is 
the improper expenditure of the money which does the prin- 
cipal injury." Copeland v. Huntington, 99 Mass. 525. 

" It has never been held that the statute gives an absolute 
right to any ten taxpayers to maintain a bill in equity whenever 
a city or town has voted to pay money from its treasury for a 
purpose which is not legal. It gives the court jurisdiction to 
hear and determine the matter in equity, and it has been held 
that the court will not grant relief where the plain tiffs have 
been guilty of laches by delaying to bring their suit until the 
rights of other persons have been affected by the action of 
the town." Morton, C. J., in Prince v. Boston, 148 Mass. 
285, at p. 288; Tushy. Adams, 10 Cush. 252 ; Fuller v. Melrose, 
1 Allen, 166 ; Fish v. Springfield, 116 Mass. 88 ; Parsons v. 
Northampton, 154 Mass. 410. 

Inspection of Buildings. 
§ 138. With the exception of Boston, each city or town 
which has adopted chapter two hundred and forty-three of the 
statutes of the year eighteen hundred and seventy-two, or 
which adopts this section, may, for the prevention of fire and 
the preservation of life, by ordinances or by-laws not repug- 
nant to law, and applicable throughout the whole or any 
defined part of its territory, regulate the inspection, materials, 



GENERAL POWERS AND DUTIES OP TOWNS. 45 

construction, alteration, and use of buildings and other struc- 
tures within its limits, excepting such buildings and structures 
as are owned or occupied by the United States or the 
Commonwealth, and excepting also bridges, quays, and 
wharves, and may prescribe penalties not exceeding one hun- 
dred dollars for each violation of such regulations. 

§ 139. In a town which has adopted chapter three hundred 
and seventy-five of the statutes of the year eighteen hundred 
and seventy, or which adopts this and the following section, 
no dwelling-house or other structure more than eight feet in 
length or breadth and seven feet in height, except detached 
houses or structures situated more than one hundred feet 
from any other building and wooden structures erected on 
wooden wharves, shall be built within such limits as the town 
may from time to time prescribe, unless made of and covered 
with some incombustible material, or unless a special license 
in writing is granted therefor by a majority of the selectmen 
for reasons of public good or necessity, and is recorded in the 
records of the town. 

§ 140. Any building or structure erected in violation of 
the provisions of chapter three hundred and seventy -five of the 
statutes of the year eighteen hundred and seventy, or in viola- 
tion of the preceding section, shall be deemed to be a common 
nuisance, without any other proof thereof than proof of its 
use. And the selectmen may abate and remove any such 
building or structure in the same manner as boards of health 
may remove nuisances. Pub. Stats, ch. 104, §§ 1-3. 

§ 141. The selectmen of a town where there is no town 
engineer or chief engineer of the fire department, shall desig- 
nate officers to serve as a board of survey to inspect buildings. 
Sts. 1888, ch. 399, § 4. 



46 THE TOWN OFFICER. 



CHAPTER IT. 

ELECTIONS AND TOWN MEETINGS. 
GENERAL PROVISIONS. 

§ 142. Terms used in this act and in statutes relating 
to elections shall have application as hereinafter set forth, 
unless other meaning is clearly apparent from the language 
or context, or from the manifest intent. 

The term u state election " shall apply to any election held 
for the choice of a national, state, district, or county officer, 
by the qualified voters, whether for a full term or for the 
filling of a vacancy ; and the term " state officer " shall apply 
to any person to be chosen by the qualified voters at such an 
election. The term " town election," shall apply to any meet- 
ing held for the election of town officers, by the qualified 
voters, whether for a full term or for the filling of a vacancy ; 
and the term " town officer " shall apply to any person to be 
chosen by the qualified voters at such a meeting. The term 
" election " shall also apply to the taking of a vote upon a 
proposed amendment to the constitution, upon the question 
of granting licenses for the sale of intoxicating liquors in a 
town, and upon any other question submitted by statute to 
the vote of the people. The term " caucus," shall apply to 
any public meeting of qualified voters of a town, or of a rep- 
resentative district, held for the nomination of a candidate 
for election, for the selection of delegates to a political con- 
vention, or for the appointment of a political committee, 
under this act. The term " election officer " shall apply fco 
wardens, clerks, inspectors, and ballot clerks, and, when on 
duty, to the deputies of any such officers, and also to select- 
men, town clerks, moderators, and tellers when taking part 
in the conduct of elections. The term " presiding officer," 
shall apply to the warden, chairman of selectmen, modera- 



ELECTIONS iND TOWN MEETINGS. 47 

tor or town clerk, in charge of a polling place at an elec- 
tion, or, in case of the absence of any such superior officer, 
to the deputy warden, or the clerk, or senior inspector, or 
senior selectman present, who shall have charge of a polling 
place in the absence of such superior officer. The term " poll- 
ing place " shall apply to the room or place provided in a 
voting precinct of a town, or in a town within which an elec- 
tion is held. When reference is made in this act to town 
elections or meetings, at or for which ballots are provided at 
the expense of the town, such terms shall be held to apply to 
elections or meetings held for the election of town officers 
in towns, which have accepted the provisions of chapter three 
hundred and eighty-six of the acts of the year eighteen hun- 
dred and ninety, and in towns which have voted that ballots 
shall be so provided in accordance with § 337 post. The term 
" two leading political parties " shall apply to the two political 
parties which cast the largest and next largest number of 
votes for governor at the preceding annual state election. 

§ 143. In all elections of civil officers by the people, the 
person receiving the highest number of votes for an office shall 
be deemed and declared to be elected to such office ; and if two 
or more persons are to be elected to the same office, the sev- 
eral persons, up to the number to be chosen to such office, 
receiving the highest number of votes, shall be deemed and 
declared to be elected ; but if two or more persons receive 
the same number of votes, they shall not be deemed to be 
elected if thereby a greater number would be elected than are 
by law to be chosen to such office. Sts. 1893, ch. 417, §§ 2, 3. 

§ 144. In reckoning the number of days in a period of time 
allowed or required by the provisions of this act and of other 
statutes relative to elections, Sundays and holidays shall be 
included ; except that, if a period of time follows a certain 
day, act, or event, and the final day of such period falls on a 
Sunday or a holiday, then the day succeeding such Sunday or 
holiday shall be considered the final day of the period ; and, 
if a period of time precedes a certain day, act, or event, and 
the first day of such period falls on a Sunday or a holiday, 
then the day preceding such Sunday or holiday shall be con- 
sidered the first day of the period. 



48 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

§ 145. Indians residing within this Commonwealth shall, 
as citizens thereof, have all the rights, privileges, and im- 
munities, and be subject to all the duties and liabilities, to 
which all other citizens of the Commonwealth are entitled 
and subject. Sts. 1893, ch. 417, §§ 5, 6. 

§ 146. Assessors, registrars of voters, town clerks, and 
other officers, who are required by law to post lists and notices 
relating to elections, shall post all such lists and notices at 
or as near as ma) 7 be to the places in which voting lists are 
posted as is stated in § 190 post. Sts. 1893, ch. 417, § 8. 

QUALIFICATION AND REGISTRATION OF VOTERS. 

§ 147. Every male citizen of twenty-one years of age or 
upwards, not being a pauper or person under guardianship, 
who is able to read the constitution of the Commonwealth in 
the English language and write his name, and who has resided 
within the Commonwealth one year, and within the town in 
which he claims a right to vote six calendar months next 
preceding a state or town election, may have his name en- 
tered upon the list of voters in such town, and shall have the 
right to vote therein in any such election, or in any meeting 
held for the transaction of town affairs, upon complying with 
the requirements hereinafter set forth ; and, except as above 
provided, no male person shall have his name entered upon 
the list of voters, or have the right to vote, except that no 
person who is prevented from reading or writing as aforesaid 
by a physical disability, or who had the right to vote on the 
first day of May in the year eighteen hundred and fifty-seven, 
shall, if otherwise qualified, be deprived of the right to vote 
by reason of not being able so to read or write ; and no person 
having served in the army or navy of the- United States in the 
time of war, and having been honorably discharged from such 
service, if otherwise qualified to vote, shall be disqualified 
therefor on account of receiving or having received aid from 
any town ; and further, no person, otherwise qualified to vote 
for national or state officers, shall, by reason of a change of 
residence within the Commonwealth, be disqualified from 
voting for such officers, in the town from which he has re- 



ELECTIONS AND TOWN MEETINGS. 49 

moved his residence, until the expiration of six calendar 
months from the time of such removal. 

§ 148. Every female citizen of twenty-one years of age or 
upwards, not being a pauper or person under guardianship, 
who is able to read the constitution of the Commonwealth in 
the English language and to write her name, and who has 
resided within the Commonwealth one year, and within the 
town in which she claims a right to vote six calendar months 
next preceding an election for school committee, may have 
her name entered upon the list of voters for school committee 
in such town, and shall have the right to vote therein in 
every such election for members of the school committee, 
upon complying with the requirements hereinafter set forth ; 
and, except as aforesaid, no female person shall have her 
name entered upon the list of voters or have the right or be 
allowed to vote, except that no female person who is pre- 
vented from reading or writing as aforesaid by a physical 
disability shall, if otherwise qualified, be deprived of the right 
to vote by reason of not being able so to read or write. 

§ 149. A person qualified to vote in a town which is 
divided into voting precincts shall be registered and be en- 
titled to vote in the voting precinct in which he resided on 
the first day of May preceding the election, or, if he first 
became an inhabitant of such town after such first day of 
May, in the voting precinct in which he first thereafter 
became a resident. 

(a) Assessment of Poll Taxes and Lists of Persons Assessed. 

§ 150. The assessors, by one or more of their number, or 
by one or more assistant assessors, shall, in the month of 
May or June in each year, visit every building in their respec- 
tive towns, and, after diligent inquiry, make true lists con- 
taining, as near as they can ascertain the same, the name, 
age, occupation, and residence, on the first day of May in the 
current year, and the residence on the first day of May in the 
preceding year, of every male person twenty years of age 
or upwards, residing in their respective towns, liable to be 
assessed for a poll tax ; and shall receive the request of every 
woman twenty-one years of age or upwards, residing in their 

4 



50 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

respective towns on the first day of May in the current year, 
who, in a writing signed by her, requests that her name be 
transmitted to the registrars of voters for the purpose of 
registration. 

The assessors shall, upon the personal application of an 
assessed person for the correction of any error in their origi- 
nal lists, and whenever informed of the existence of any 
such error, make due investigation, and, upon proof of error, 
correct the same on their books. They shall cause to be 
preserved for the space of two years all applications, certifi- 
cates, and affidavits received by them under this section. 

§ 151. The assessors in each town shall promptly, from 
time to time, and before the fifteenth day of July in each 
year, transmit to the registrars of voters the lists made as 
provided in the preceding section, or certified copies thereof, 
and shall promptly transmit to the registrars and to the col- 
lector of taxes notice of every addition to and correction in the 
lists made by them ; they shall also promptly transmit to the 
registrars the requests of all women which shall have been 
received by them as aforesaid ; and every assessor, assistant 
assessor, and collector of taxes shall furnish all information 
in his possession necessary to aid the registrars in the dis- 
charge of their duties. 

§ 152. The assessors of towns having over five thousand 
inhabitants, according to the last state or national census, as 
the case may be, shall, on or before the first day of August in 
each year, prepare street lists containing the names of all 
persons assessed by them for poll taxes for the current year, 
which lists shall, for towns divided into voting precincts, be 
arranged by voting precincts. They shall print such lists in 
pamphlet form, shall deliver to the registrars as many copies 
thereof as the registrars may require, and shall hold the re- 
mainder of the copies for public distribution. In every town 
containing less than five thousand inhabitants according to 
such census, the assessors shall, on or before the first day of 
August in each year, cause printed or written lists of all per- 
sons assessed therein for poll taxes to be prepared and con- 
spicuously posted in two or more pnblic places in every such 
town. 



ELECTIONS AND TOWN MEETINGS. 51 

§ 153. The assessors, in the preparation of street lists as 
above provided, shall name or designate all buildings used 
as residences, in the order in which they stand on the street 
or other way on which they are located, shall give the number 
or other definite description of each building, so that it can 
be readily identified, and shall place opposite or under each 
number or other description given of a building, the name, 
age, and occupation of every person residing in such building 
on the first day of May of the current year and assessed for 
a poll tax, with his residence on the first day of May of the 
preceding year. 

§ 154. If a male person, who has not been previously 
assessed for a poll tax for the year beginning with the pre- 
ceding first day of May, shall, on or before the day fixed by 
law for the close of registration in a town, appear in person 
and prove to the satisfaction of the assessors that he was on 
such preceding first day of May an inhabitant of such town, 
and liable to pay a poll tax therein, and shall under oath fur- 
nish a true list of his polls and of his estate, both real and 
personal, not exempt from taxation, the assessors shall there- 
upon assess him for his polls and estate, and shall give him 
a certificate of such assessment, which on presentation to the 
registrars of voters shall be taken by them as prima facie 
evidence of the facts therein stated. 

§ 155. The assessors of a town, upon receipt from the 
registrars of voters of notice of the registration by them as 
a voter, of a person who was a resident of such town on the 
preceding first clay of May, but who was not assessed therein 
for a poll tax, shall forthwith assess such person for his polls 
and estate, unless he is by law exempt from assessment. 

§ 156. All assessments made in accordance with the pre- 
ceding two sections shall be subject to the provisions stated 
in § 634 post, and shall be entered in the tax list of the 
collector of taxes of the town, and be collected by him ac- 
cording to law. 

§ 157. The town clerk or registrar of deaths in each town 
shall, on the first day of every month, and also two days 
before every election, transmit to the registrars of voters a 
list of the names of all residents of such town of twenty-one 



52 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

years of age or upwards, who have deceased within the pre- 
ceding month, or since the date of the list previously trans- 
mitted, together with a statement of the street and number 
therein, and the ward, if any, in which such person resided 
at the date of his death. Sts. 1893, ch. 417, §§ 13-23. 

(b) Registrars of Voters. 

§ 158. In every town which shall have three hundred 
registered voters, as provided in the following section, there 
shall be a board of registrars of voters, consisting of the 
town clerk, and, in addition, three persons who shall be 
appointed by the selectmen, by a writing signed by them, or 
a majority of them, and filed with the town clerk. When a 
board of registrars is first appointed, the registrars shall 
be appointed in the month of March or April, for terms 
respectively of one, two, and three years, beginning with the 
first day of May next ensuing, and continuing until their 
respective successors are appointed and qualified. In the 
month of March or April in every year succeeding the origi- 
nal appointment of a board of registrars, as aforesaid, one 
registrar shall be appointed for the term of three years, 
beginning with the first day of May next ensuing, and until 
his successor is appointed and qualified. 

§ 159. In every town having less than three hundred reg- 
istered voters, as herein provided, the selectmen and town 
clerk shall constitute a board of registrars of voters, and shall 
perform all the duties and be subject to all the liabilities im- 
posed by law upon registrars of voters. Whenever in any 
such town there shall be registered for the annual state elec- 
tion three hundred voters, a board of registrars shall in the 
succeeding year be appointed, as provided in the preceding 
section ; and a board of registrars of voters, having been once 
so appointed in a town, shall continue to perform the duties 
of registration therein, notwithstanding the number of regis- 
tered voters shall in any year be less than three hundred, 
except that if, for three successive years, the number of such 
registered voters shall be less than three hundred, then on 
the first day of May succeeding the annual state election in 
such third year, such board shall cease to exist and the duties 



ELECTIONS AND TOWN MEETINGS. 53 

thereof shall be thereafter performed by the selectmen and 
town clerk. 

§ 160. In the making of original and succeeding appoint- 
ments and in the filling of vacancies, registrars of voters 
shall be so appointed that the members of every board shall 
equally, or as equally as possible, represent the two leading 
political parties at the state election next preceding such ap- 
pointments, and in no case shall an appointment be so made 
as to cause a board to comprise more than two members, in- 
cluding the town clerk, of the same political party. 

§ 161. Whenever, upon written complaint to the select- 
men of a town, and after notice and hearing, it shall appear 
that the town clerk, when a member of the board of regis- 
trars, and two registrars, other than the one whose term of 
office next expires, are of the same political party, the select- 
men shall remove from office the one of such two registrars 
having the shorter term of service. Whenever, upon written 
complaint to the selectmen of a town, and after notice and 
hearing, it shall appear that a registrar of voters, other than 
the town clerk, has ceased to act with the political party which 
he was appointed to represent, the selectmen shall remove 
such registrar from office. 

§ 162. In case of a vacancy occurring by reason of the 
death, resignation, or removal from office of a registrar ap- 
pointed as provided in the preceding sections, the selectmen 
shall, in the manner above provided, appoint a person as 
aforesaid to serve for the remainder of the term and until his 
successor is appointed and qualified. 

§ 163. Whenever a member of the board of registrars 
shall be incapacitated by sickness or other cause from per- 
forming the duties of his office, or shall, at the time of any 
meeting of said board, be absent from the town in which he 
is appointed, the selectmen of the town by a writing signed 
by them, or a majority of them, may, upon the request in 
writing of a majority of the remaining members of the board 
of registrars, appoint some person to fill the temporary 
vacancy caused as aforesaid. The person so appointed shall 
be of the same political party as the member of the board 
whose position he is appointed temporarily to fill. Such tern- 



54 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

porary registrar shall, during the time he holds his office, 
perform the same duties and be subject to the same require- 
ments and penalties as are now provided by law for a registrar 
of voters. 

§ 164. The registrars appointed as provided in the pre 
ceding sections shall, before entering upon the duties of their 
office, each take and subscribe an oath faithfully to perform 
the same, shall perform all the duties in relation to the regis- 
tration of voters now imposed upon boards of registrars, and 
shall receive such compensation for their services as the city 
council or selectmen may, from time to time, determine ; but 
such compensation shall not be regulated by the number of 
names registered on any list of voters, and any reduction 
of compensation shall take effect only upon such registrars as 
are appointed after such reduction. The selectmen shall fur 
nish office room for the registrars, and such aid as may be 
needed by them. The town clerk when a member of a board 
of registrars, shall act as clerk of the board, shall keep a full 
and accurate record of its proceedings, and shall cause such 
notices as the registrars may require to be properly served or 
posted. Sts. 1893, ch. 417, §§ 26-32. 

§ 165. No person shall be appointed a registrar of voters 
or an assistant registrar of voters, who is not a qualified voter 
of the town for which he is appointed, and no person shall be 
so appointed who holds an office by election or appointment 
under the government of the United States or, except as a 
justice of the peace or an officer of the state militia of the 
Commonwealth, or who holds an office in the town for which 
he is appointed either by election or by direct appointment of 
the selectmen of the town. The acceptance by a registrar or 
assistant registrar of an office which he is so prohibited from 
holding, shall be taken to be a resignation of his office as 
registrar or assistant registrar. Sts. 1893, ch. 417, § 35. 



ELECTIONS AND TOWN MEETINGS. 55 

FORM FOR REGISTRARS. 

Voting List. 

Voting List prepared by the Registrars of Voters of the town of 

W , 189 . 

Names. Names. 

N. B. The undersigned hereb}* give notice that they will be in 
session at the town officers' room in the Town Hall on , 

also on Wednesday [insert day of the month and year] from 
o'clock until ten o'clock in the afternoon for the purpose of receiv- 
ing evidence of the qualifications of those persons intending to 
vote at the coining elections, and to correct and revise the above 
voting list! 

The registration of voters will cease at ten o'clock in the after- 
noon of said Wednesday', and no name will be entered on the list 
of voters thereafterwards unless the qualifications of the person as 
a voter have been determined by the registrars of voters at some 
meeting held before the close of registration ; such fact to be 
verified by the certificate of the clerk of the board of registrars. 

Registrars of Voters of the town of W . 

(c) Registration of Voters. 

§ 166. Every town shall provide the registrars of voters 
with suitable quarters in which to hold sessions for the 
purpose of determining the qualifications of persons to be 
registered as voters. 

The registrars in every town divided into voting precincts 
shall hold such sessions as the town may prescribe, and such 
other sessions as the registrars may themselves deem neces- 
sary ; and they shall in every year not more than twenty days 
before the annual state election, and also not more than 
twenty days before the annual town meeting, but in each case 
on or before the last day fixed for registration, hold at least 
one session at some suitable and convenient place within the 
limits of each voting precinct ; and they shall hold a continu- 
ous session from twelve o'clock, noon, until ten o'clock in the 
evening on the Wednesday next preceding the annual state 
election, and also on the Wednesday next preceding the annual 
town meeting. Sts. 1893, ch. 417, §§ 36, 38. 

§ 167. The registrars of voters in every town not divided 
into voting precincts shall hold such sessions as the town may 



bQ THE TOWN OFFICER. 

prescribe, and such other sessions as the registrars may them- 
selves deem necessary ; and they shall in every year, not more 
than twenty days before the annual state election, and also 
not more than twenty days before the annual town meeting, 
but in each case on or before the last day fixed for registra- 
tion, hold sessions in two or more suitable and convenient 
places in such town ; and they shall hold a continuous session 
from twelve o'clock, noon, until ten o'clock in the evening on 
the Wednesday next preceding the annual state election, and 
also on the Wednesday next preceding the annual town meet- 
ing. If in any such town ten or more voters residing in or 
near a village or locality which is distant two or more miles 
from the usual place of registration shall file with the town 
clerk not less than eighteen days before the annual state elec- 
tion or the annual town meeting, a petition stating that there 
are in such village or locality ten citizens at least who are 
entitled and desire to be registered, then the registrars shall 
hold a session at some suitable and convenient place in such 
village or locality before the last day fixed for registration in 
such town preceding such election or meeting. 

§ 168. In every town registration shall cease at ten o'clock 
in the evening on the Wednesday next preceding the annual 
state election, and be discontinued from that date until the 
election shall have been held ; and registration shall likewise 
cease at ten o'clock in the evening on the Wednesday next 
preceding the annual town meeting, and be discontinued 
thenceforth until the election shall have been held. 

§ 169. In case an election is to be held in a town on a 
day other than the day of the annual state or town election 
therein, the registrars of voters shall, for the registration of 
voters in such town, hold in some suitable and convenient 
place therein a continuous session from twelve o'clock noon 
until ten o'clock in the evening, on the fourtli day preceding 
such election, or if such day would fall on a Sunday, then on 
the fifth day preceding such election. Registration in such 
town shall cease at ten o'clock in the evening of the day on 
which such session is held, and be discontinued therein 
until the election shall have been held. 

§ 170. The registrars of voters shall not, after ten o'clock 



ELECTIONS AND TOWN MEETINGS. 57 

in the evening of a day on which registration is to cease, as 
provided in the preceding sections, register any person as a 
voter, previous to the next succeeding election, except that 
nothing contained herein or in any of these sections shall 
prevent the entering upon the registers, after such time, of 
the names of persons whose qualifications as voters have been 
already examined, or the correction, in accordance with the 
provisions stated in these sections, of any errors or omis- 
sions ; but the registrars shall in every case require the vote 
by which such entry or correction is made to be attested by 
their clerk. 

§ 171. The registrars of voters shall prepare, and shall 
post or publish proper notices, in which they shall state the 
places and hours for holding day and evening sessions, and 
last sessions preceding an election, and shall further state in 
such notices that after ten o'clock in the evening of the last 
day fixed for registration they will not before the election 
add any name to the registers except the names of voters ex- 
amined as to their qualifications since the preceding thirtieth 
day of April. 

§ 172. The registrars of voters in each town shall keep in 
blank books, to be provided for the purpose and to be known 
as general registers, records of all persons, both male and 
female, applying for registration, qualified to vote in the town. 
The registrars shall enter in the general register the name of 
every such voter written in full, or instead thereof the sur- 
name and first Christian name, or that name by which he is 
generally known, written in full, and the initial of every other 
name which he may have, and also his age, place of birth, 
residence on the preceding first day of May, or at the time of 
first becoming an inhabitant of the town after the first day 
of May, the date of his registration and his residence at such 
date, his occupation and place of occupation, the name and 
location of the court which has issued to him letters of 
naturalization and the date thereof, if he is a naturalized 
citizen, and such other particulars as may be necessary fully 
to identify him as a voter ; and the registrars shall require 
each voter to write his name in the register. 

The books used for the general registers shall have uniform 



58 



THE TOWN OFFICER. 



headings in substantially the following form, and blank books 
suitable for the purpose shall be furnished by the secretary 
of the Commonwealth at cost price to registrars applying 
therefor. 







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§ 173. The registrars of voters in each town shall, after 
the first day of May in every year, prepare an annual register 
containing the names of all qualified voters in such town for 
the current year, beginning with such first day of May. The 
names of voters in the annual register shall be arranged in 
alphabetical order, and, opposite the name of each voter, his 
residence on the first day of May preceding, or at the time 
after the first day of May of his first becoming an inhabitant 
of the town. The registrars shall enter in the annual regis- 
ter every name contained in the lists of persons assessed a 
poll tax for the current year as transmitted to them by the 
assessors, giving as his residence on the first day of May 
the place at which he was assessed a poll tax ; and likewise 
the name and residence, as aforesaid, of every woman whose 
request for registration has been delivered to the assessors, 
and by them transmitted to the registrars, in accordance with 
the provisions of this act : provided, however, in every case 
the registrars are able to identify the name so transmitted to 
them as that of a man or woman whose name was borne on 
the voting list of such town at the last preceding election 
or town meeting. The registrars shall make all necessary 
inquiries and investigations in order to complete every such 
identification, and they shall not enter in the annual register 
the name of a person objected to by any one of the registrars 
until such person has been duly notified, and given an oppor- 



ELECTIONS AND TOWN MEETINGS. 59 

tunity to be heard before the registrars. The registrars shall 
also forthwith enter in the current annual register the name 
of every other person whose qualifications as a voter have 
been determined by them in the current year, and whose 
name has accordingly been entered in the general register. 
Sts. 1893, ch. 417, §§ 39-45. 

§ 174. Any registrar of voters may, in a place appointed 
for registration, during the hours designated for the purpose, 
on any day, except days on which registration is discontinued 
by law, receive applications for registration and examine 
under oath applicants and witnesses, but all doings of a 
single registrar shall be subject to the revision and accept- 
ance of the registrars. 

§ 175. If an applicant's qualifications have not been deter- 
mined by the registrars within the four years next preceding 
his application, the registrar, in making the examination, 
shall examine the applicant under oath in regard to his 
qualifications, shall, unless the applicant is prevented by 
physical disability from so doing, or unless he had the right 
to vote on the first day of May in the year eighteen hundred 
and fifty-seven, require him to read, in such manner as to 
show that he is neither prompted nor reciting from memory, 
at least three lines, other than the title, from an official 
edition of the constitution of the Commonwealth, and shall 
require him to write his name in the general register, as is 
stated in § 172 ante. 

§ 176. If an applicant for registration presents a certifi- 
cate from the assessors, or a tax bill or notice from the 
collector of taxes, showing that he has been assessed for a 
poll tax as a resident of the town on the preceding first day 
of May, the same shall be received by a registrar as prima 
facie evidence of such residence ; but in case the applicant 
shall fail to present such certificate, bill, or notice, he shall 
be required to satisfy the registrars that he has a residence 
in such town, as required by law. 

§ 177. If an applicant for registration is a naturalized 
citizen, the registrar shall require him to produce for inspec- 
tion his papers of naturalization, and to make oath that he is 
the identical person named therein, and shall, if satisfied that 



60 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

the applicant lias been legally naturalized, make upon his 
papers a memorandum of the date of such inspection. The 
registrar shall not be obliged to require the production of 
papers of naturalization which have once been examined, and 
of which record has been made in the general register, as 
required by the provisions stated in §§ 147-195. 

§ 178. If the registrars are satisfied upon examination that 
an applicant for registration possesses all the qualifications of 
a voter, except that of age, and will on or before the day of 
the next election or town meeting attain the required age, 
they shall place the name of the applicant upon the registers 
for registration. 

§ 179. In case the registrars of voters shall decline to 
register the name of any person examined for registration, 
and reported to them therefor by any registrar, they shall 
notify such person of their declining so to register his name, 
and give him a reasonable opportunity to be heard by them 
upon his application. The registrars shall likewise in case of 
rejection of an applicant who appears before them inform him 
of such rejection. 

§ 180. The registrars of voters shall, from time to time, 
revise and correct the general register and the current annual 
register in accordance with any facts which may be presented 
to them, and they shall strike therefrom the name of every 
deceased person w T hich has been transmitted to them by the 
clerk of the town or the registrar of deaths in accordance 
with the provisions stated in § 157 ante ; but after the name 
of a voter has been placed upon the current annual register, 
they shall not strike it therefrom or change the place of resi- 
dence as given thereon, unless the voter has deceased, or until 
they have sent a notification to him of their intention so to 
do ; offering him an opportunity to be heard in the matter. 

§ 181. If a complaint in writing under oath shall be made, 
in a town four days at least, before an election or town meet- 
ing, to the registrars by a registered voter, stating that he has 
reason to believe and does believe that a certain person by 
him therein named has been illegally or incorrectly registered, 
and setting forth the reasons for such belief, the registrars 
shall examine into such complaint, and, if satisfied that there 



ELECTIONS AND TOWN MEETINGS. 61 

is sufficient ground therefor, shall summon the person com- 
plained of to appear before them at a certain place and time, 
before the next election or town meeting, to answer to the 
matters set forth in the complaint ; and the substance of the 
complaint and a copy of this and the following section shall 
be set forth in the summons. Service of the summons shall 
be made, by an officer qualified to serve civil or criminal pro- 
cess, not more than fourteen days nor less than twenty-four 
hours before the day named for appearance, by the delivery of 
a copy of the summons to the person therein summoned, 
or by the leaving of such copy at his last and usual place of 
abode known to the officer ; and the officer shall return the 
summons to the registrars before the day named for appear- 
ance, with a certificate of his doings endorsed thereon. 

§ 182. When a person summoned before the registrars of 
voters to answer a complaint made in accordance with the 
preceding section, appears before them, they shall examine 
him under oath, and shall receive other evidence which may 
be offered in regard to the matters set forth in the complaint ; 
and, if satisfied that the person is properly registered as a 
qualified voter, they shall enter in the register a statement of 
their determination upon the facts required for registration ; 
if, however, the registrars are satisfied that the person so 
appearing is not a qualified voter in the town, or if a person 
duly summoned in the manner aforesaid shall fail to appear 
as directed in the summons, without sufficient cause for his 
failure being shown, they shall strike his name from the 
register. 

§ 183. The registrars of voters shall promptly transmit to 
the assessors of the town notice of every error which they 
shall discover in the name or residence of a person assessed 
therein, and they shall also promptly transmit to the assess- 
ors the name and residence of every male person who shall, 
for the purpose of registration, prove that he was a resident 
of the town on the preceding first day of May, but whose 
name does not appear in the list of persons assessed for a poll 
tax transmitted to them by the assessors. Sts. 1893, ch. 417, 
§§ 47-66. 

§184. The registrars of voters shall, in the performance 



62 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

of their duties, act in open session, and not secretly. They 
shall in every case announce the name of an applicant for 
registration in a clear, audible, and distinct tone of voice, be- 
fore entering his name on the general register of voters. 
They shall keep all their records open at suitable times to 
public inspection. 

The registrars of voters shall cause all written complaints 
and certificates received by them under the provisions of the 
various sections of this topic, and all other documents in their 
custody relating to registration, to be preserved for a period 
of two years after the respective dates thereof. Sts. 1893, 
eh. 417, §§ 57, 58. 

§ 185. Every registrar shall have authority to enforce 
regularity in all proceedings had before him, and to maintain 
order at and about the place where a session is held, or appli- 
cations for registration are received, and to keep the access 
thereto open and unobstructed. 

§ 186. The board or officer in charge of the police force of 
a town shall, when requested so to do by the registrars of 
voters, detail a sufficient number of police officers to attend 
any meeting held by a registrar in the performance of his 
duties, and to preserve order and enforce the directions of the 
registrar. 

§ 187. The supervisors of registration who have been ap- 
pointed in accordance with § 61 of ch. 417 of the Acts of 
1893, shall attend all sessions or meetings for registration 
held at the places for which they are appointed, and either of 
them may attach to any book or papers there used for pur- 
poses of registration, any statement touching the truth or 
fairness of the proceedings, which he may deem proper, and 
may add thereto his signature or other marks for the purpose 
of identification. 

(d) Voting Lists. 

§ 188. The registrars of voters in each town shall, from 
the names entered in the annual register of voters, prepare 
voting lists for use at the several elections to be held therein. 
In such voting lists they shall place in alphabetical order the 
names of all voters entered on the annual register, and they 



ELECTIONS AND TOWN MEETINGS. 63 

shall place opposite the name of each voter his residence on 
the preceding first day of May, or at the time of his becoming 
an inhabitant of such town after the first day of May ; and 
they shall place the names of women entered as voters in sep- 
arate columns or lists. If a town is divided into voting 
precincts, they shall prepare the voting lists by precincts, and 
shall place upon the lists for each precinct the names of all 
voters having therein a residence as above provided. They 
shall place upon the voting lists no names not entered in the 
annual register. 

§ 189. The registrars of voters shall, at the end of the 
voting lists of each voting precinct or town, as the case may 
be, place together, under a proper heading, the names of all 
persons who, by changes in town boundaries, may be by law 
entitled to vote for a part only of the whole number of officers 
to be voted for in a state election in such town. 

§ 190. The registrars of voters in every town, twenty days 
at least before the annual town election, and in every town, 
thirty days at least before the annual state election, shall 
cause to be posted in their principal office, and in one or more 
other public places in the town, copies of the voting lists 
prepared in accordance with the provisions of the preced- 
ing sections. In every town divided into voting precincts 
the registrars shall, in addition, cause copies of the voting 
lists of each precinct to be posted in one or more public 
places in the precinct. 

§ 191. After the voting lists have been prepared from the 
annual register, and copies thereof have been posted as pro- 
vided in the preceding sections, the registrars of voters shall, 
within forty-eight hours after adding a new name to the 
annual register, cause such name to be added to the lists so 
posted in their principal office. If, however, a town shall 
authorize the registrars to publish the names so added to the 
register, they may, instead of posting as aforesaid, cause all 
additional names to be printed in some one newspaper pub- 
lished iii the town, or, if no newspaper is so published, then 
in some one newspaper published in the county in which such 
town is situated. 

§ 192. The registrars of voters shall, on the day of any 



64 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

election, give to a registered voter whose name has been 
omitted from the voting lists, or in whose name or residence, 
as placed on the voting lists, a clerical error has been made, 
a certificate containing the correct name and residence of the 
voter, signed by the registrars, or a majority of them, and 
directed to the presiding election officer of the voting precinct 
or town, as the case may be, in which the voter was registered. 
On presentation of such certificate to the presiding officer, the 
person therein named shall be allowed to vote, and his name 
shall be properly checked on the certificate, and the certificate 
shall be attached to and considered a part of the voting lists, 
and returned and preserved therewith. 

§ 193. The registrars of voters, before every election, and 
meeting in a town at which voting lists may be required to be 
used, shall cause to be prepared voting lists for each precinct 
or town, as the case may be, in which such election or meeting 
is to be held, containing the names of all persons qualified 
to vote therein, with the residence of each such voter, as the 
same appears upon the annual register, and they shall season- 
ably transmit the same to the election officers in every such 
precinct or town. Such voting lists shall be provided and 
furnished in duplicate for all elections and meetings in which 
duplicate lists are by law required to be used. In providing 
such lists for an election or meeting, other than an annual 
state or town election, voting lists in the form used or as 
printed for the preceding annual state or town election, as 
the case may be, may be used, with such omissions, additions, 
and corrections as by law are required therein. 

§ 194. The registrars of voters in each town shall forth- 
with, after every last day for registration before an annual 
state or town election, fixed by law, certify to the secretary 
of the Commonwealth the number of assessed polls and the 
number of registered male and female voters in the town, and 
in each precinct therein ; and they shall also certify the num- 
ber of persons who by law are entitled to vote for a part only 
of the whole number of officers to be voted for at a state 
election in such town, and in each precinct therein, together 
with the titles of the officers for whom such persons are 
entitled to vote. 



ELECTIONS AND TOWN MEETINGS. 65 

§ 195. The registrars of voters in a town, whenever a 
caucus is called therein, shall, on request of the person desig- 
nated in the notice thereof to call the caucus to order, furnish 
him for use in the caucus a certified copy of the voting lists 
of the town, for which the caucus is to be held, as last pub- 
lished according to law, together with such names of voters 
as have been added thereto since such publication. Sts. 1893, 
eh. 417, §§ 59-69. 

NOMINATION OF CANDIDATES. 

§ 196. Any convention of delegates representing a politi- 
cal party which, at the preceding annual state election, polled 
for governor at least three per centum of the entire vote cast 
in the state for that office, and any convention of delegates 
who have been selected in caucuses called and held in 
accordance with the provisions stated in these sections, and 
any caucus called and held in accordance with those provi- 
sions, may, for the state or for the district, division, or town, 
for which the convention or caucus is held, as the case may 
be, make one such nomination for each office therein to be 
filled at the election, by causing a certificate of nomination 
to be duly filed. 

§ 197. Every certificate of nomination shall state such 
facts as by the preceding sections are necessary for its accept- 
ance, and, as are stated in § 200 post, shall be signed by the 
presiding officer and by the secretary of the convention or 
caucus, who shall add to their signatures their places of 
residence, and shall be sworn by such officers to be true 
to the best of their knowledge and belief; and certifica- 
tion of their oaths shall be annexed to the certificate of 
nomination. 

§ 198. Nominations of candidates for any offices to be 
filled by the voters of the state at large may be made by 
nomination papers, setting forth such facts as are stated 
in § 200 post, and signed in the aggregate for each candi- 
date by not less than one thousand qualified voters of the 
state. Nominations of all other candidates for offices to be 
filled at a state election may be made by nomination papers, 
as aforesaid, signed in the aggregate for each candidate by 



66 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

qualified voters of each electoral district or division for 
which the officers are to be elected, not less in number than 
one for every one hundred persons who voted for governor, 
at the preceding annual state election, in such district or 
division, but in no case less than fifty. Nominations of can- 
didates for offices to be filled in a town election may be made 
by nomination papers, as aforesaid, signed in the aggregate 
for each candidate by qualified voters in each town, not less 
in number than one for every fifty persons who voted for 
governor at the preceding annual state election in such town, 
but in no case less than twenty. In case of a first election 
in a town the number of twenty shall be a sufficient number 
for the nomination of a candidate who is to be voted for only 
in such town. 

§ 199. Every voter signing a nomination paper shall sign 
the same in person, and shall add to his signature his place 
of residence, with the street and number thereof, if any ; and 
every voter may subscribe to as many nominations for each 
office to be filled as there are persons to be elected thereto, 
and no more. Women qualified to vote for members of the 
school committee may sign nomination papers for candidates 
for the school committee. Every nomination paper shall, 
before being filed, be at the proper time submitted to the regis- 
trars of voters of the town in which the signers purport to 
be qualified voters, and the registrars, or a majority of the 
board, to whom the same is submitted, shall forthwith certify 
thereon the number of signatures which are the names of the 
qualified voters in the same town for which they are regis- 
trars and in the district or division for which the nomination 
is made. The registrars shall not however be required in any 
case to certify upon a nomination paper a greater number of 
names than such number as is required to make a nomina- 
tion as aforesaid, with one fifth of such number added thereto. 
One of the signers to each separate nomination paper shall 
swear that the statements therein are true, to the best of his 
knowledge and belief, and the certification of such oath and 
the post-office address of the signer shall be annexed to such 
paper. 

§ 200. All certificates of nomination and nomination pa- 



ELECTIONS AND TOWN MEETINGS. 67 

pers shall, besides containing the names of candidates, specify 
as to each : (1) his place of residence with street and number 
thereon, if any ; (2) the office for which he is nominated ; and 
(3), except as hereinafter provided, the party or political prin- 
ciple which he represents, expressed in not more than three 
words. In the case of electors of president and vice-president 
of the United States, the names of the candidates for presi- 
dent and vice-president may be added to the party or political 
designation. 

If a candidate is nominated otherwise than by a political 
party which at the preceding annual state election polled for 
governor three per centum of the entire vote cast for that 
office, the name of a party so polling three per centum of 
such entire vote shall not be used in the party or political 
designation of such candidate, except as describing and pre- 
ceding some other name or term ; and if so used in case of 
a candidate nominated by a nomination paper, the desig- 
nation of such candidate shall consist of not more than 
two words, and to such designation shall be added the words 
" nomination paper," or, as abbreviated, " nom. paper." Cer- 
tificates of nomination and nomination papers for the nomi- 
nation of candidates for town offices may include a designation 
of the party or principle which the candidate represents, but 
no such designation shall be necessary. 

§ 201. In case a nomination is made in accordance with 
the provisions of this act, to supply a vacancy caused by the 
death, withdrawal or ineligibility of a candidate, the certificate 
of nomination made for supplying such vacancy shall state, in 
addition to the other facts which are stated herein in §§ 196- 
210, the name of the original nominee, the date of his death 
or withdrawal, or of being found ineligible, and the proceed- 
ings had for supplying the vacancy ; and the certificate shall 
be signed and sworn to by the presiding officer and sec- 
retary of the convention or caucus, or by the chairman and 
secretary of a duly authorized committee, as the case may be. 
Sts. 1893, ch. 417, §§ 75-80. 

§ 202. Certificates of nomination and nomination papers 
for the nomination of candidates for state offices shall be filed 
with the secretary of the Commonwealth ; and certificates of 



68 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

nomination and nomination papers for the nomination of can- 
didates for town offices shall be filed in each town with the 
town clerk. Certificates of nomination for the nomination of 
candidates for offices to be filled by the voters of tfre state at 
large shall be filed on or before the fifth Monday preceding 
the day of the election for which the candidates are nomi- 
nated ; and nomination papers for the nomination of such 
candidates shall be filed on or before the fourth Monday pre- 
ceding the day of such election. Certificates of nomination 
for the nomination of candidates for all other state offices 
shall be filed on or before the third Thursday preceding the 
day of the election ; and nomination papers for the nomina- 
tion of all such candidates shall be filed on or before the third 
Friday preceding the day of the election ; except that in case 
of an election held on a day other than that of the day of the 
annual state election to fill any state office, certificates of 
nomination shall be filed on or before the twelfth day preced- 
ing the day of such election, and nomination papers for the 
nomination of candidates to fill such office shall be filed on or 
before the eleventh day preceding the day of such election. 
In towns certificates of nomination for the nomination of can- 
didates for town offices shall be filed on or before the second 
Saturday preceding the day of the election, and nomination 
papers for the nomination of such candidates shall be filed on 
or before the Monday preceding the day of the election ; ex- 
cept that whenever a town election is held on a day of the 
week other than Monday, such certificates of nomination and 
nomination papers shall be filed respectively on or before the 
ninth and seventh days preceding the day of the election. 
Sts. 1893, ch. 417, §§ 81, 82. 

§ 203. All certificates of nomination and nomination pa- 
pers which are by law required to be filed with the secretary 
of the Commonwealth, or with the clerk of a town, shall be 
filed in the office of the secretary or of the town clerk, as the 
case may be, before five o'clock in the afternoon of the last 
day fixed by law for the filing thereof. 

No nomination paper offered for filing shall be received or 
deemed to be valid, unless there shall be presented for filing 
with such nomination paper the written acceptance of the 
candidate or candidates thereby nominated. 



ELECTIONS AND TOWN MEETINGS. 69 

§ 204. A person who has been nominated as a candidate 
for any state office in accordance with the provisions stated in 
these sections, may cause his name to be withdrawn from nom- 
ination, by a request in writing signed by him and acknowl- 
edged before an officer qualified to take acknowledgments of 
deeds, and filed with the secretary of the Commonwealth, 
within the seventy-two hours succeeding five o'clock of the 
last day fixed by law within which nomination papers may be 
filed for the nomination of candidates for such office. A per- 
son so nominated as a candidate for a town office may cause 
his name to be withdrawn from nomination, by a request 
signed and acknowledged as aforesaid, and filed with the town 
clerk within the twenty-four hours succeeding five o'clock of 
the last day fixed by law within which nomination papers may 
be filed as aforesaid. 

§ 205. When certificates of nomination and nomination 
papers have been filed in accordance with the provisions herein 
stated, and are in apparent conformity therewith, they shall 
be deemed to be valid unless objections thereto are duly made 
in writing. Such objections, in the case of nominations of can- 
didates for state offices, shall be filed with the secretary of the 
Commonwealth, within the seventy-two hours succeeding five 
o'clock of the last day fixed by law within which nomination 
papers may be filed for the nomination of candidates for such 
office. In the case of nominations for candidates for town offices 
such objections shall be filed with the town clerk within the 
twenty-four hours succeeding five o'clock of the last day fixed 
by law within which nomination papers may be filed as aforesaid. 

§ 206. Objections to certificates of nomination and nomi- 
nation papers, which are filed in accordance with the preced- 
ing section, and all other questions arising in relation thereto, 
in the case of nominations of candidates for town offices, shall 
be considered by the board of registrars of voters of the town, 
and a decision of the majority of such board shall be final. 
The boards constituted in towns to consider such objections 
and questions may, at hearings upon any matters within their 
jurisdiction, summon witnesses and administer to them oaths, 
and may require the production of books and papers. Such 
witnesses shall be summoned in the same manner, be paid 



70 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

the same fees, and be subject to the same penalties for default, 
as witnesses before the superior court. A summons may be 
signed, and an oath may be administered by any member of 
such board. 

In case any such objection is filed, notice thereof shall, by 
the town clerk, be forthwith mailed to the candidates affected 
thereby, addressed to their residences as given in the certifi- 
cates of nomination or nomination papers, and to any party 
committee known to the clerk as specially interested in 
the nomination to which objection is made. 

Whenever a greater number of candidates bearing the same 
political or other designation are nominated for an office 
than there are persons to be elected to such office, the officer 
charged, as above, with considering objections to such nomi- 
nation shall determine which of the candidates, if any, are 
entitled to such designation. 

§ 207. In case a candidate who has been duly nominated 
for a state or town office shall die before the day of election, 
or shall cause his name to be withdrawn from nomination, in 
accordance with the provisions of this title, or shall be found 
in accordance with the provisions thereof to be ineligible to 
the office for which he is nominated, the vacancy may be 
supplied by the political party or other persons making the 
original nomination, in the manner in which such nomination 
was originally made ; or if the time is sufficient therefor, 
then the vacancy may be supplied, if the nomination was 
made by a convention or caucus, in such manner as the con- 
vention or caucus has previously provided for the purpose, 
or, in case no such previous provision has been made, then by 
a regularly elected general or executive committee represent- 
ing the political party or persons holding such a convention 
or caucus. 

§ 208. All certificates of nomination and nomination 
papers, and all objections thereto and withdrawals, when 
filed, shall, under proper regulations, be open to public in- 
spection, and the secretary of the Commonwealth and the 
several town clerks shall preserve the same in their respec- 
tive offices for the period of one year. 

§ 209. All signatures required under the provisions stated 
in §§ 196-210 shall be made in person. 



ELECTIONS AND TOWN MEETINGS. 71 

§ 210. The secretary of the Commonwealth shall, upon 
application, furnish blank forms for the nomination of candi- 
dates for all state offices ; and blank forms for certificates of 
nomination of candidates for the office of representative in 
the general court shall be sent to the clerk of each town, for 
the use of the presiding officer and secretary of any caucus 
or convention held therein in accordance with the provisions 
of this act for the nomination of candidates for that office. 
The secretary of the Commonwealth shall likewise furnish 
to the clerks of towns, wherein ballots for town offices are 
provided at the expense of the town, blank forms for the 
nomination of candidates for town offices. Sts. 1893, ch. 417, 
§§ 83-90. 

PREPARATIONS FOR VOTING. 

(a) Voting Precincts. 

§ 211. Whenever a town shall by vote accept the provi- 
sions of this section, the selectmen thereof shall, within sixty 
days after such acceptance, arrange a division of the town 
into convenient voting precincts for the choice of all officers 
which are elective by the people, except town officers. In 
arranging such division they shall, so far as possible, make 
the middle lines of streets or ways, or other natural or well- 
defined limits, the boundaries of the proposed precincts, and 
shall designate them by numbers or letters. They shall, 
when the same is completed, file a report of their doings 
with the town clerk, which report shall include a map or 
description of the proposed new precincts, designated, by 
numbers or letters, as the case may be, and defined clearly 
and, so far as possible, by known boundaries ; and their report 
shall also include a statement of the number of registered 
male voters in each proposed precinct, according to the regis- 
tration made for the preceding annual state or town election, 
as the case may be. The report shall be presented by the 
town clerk to the town at the next succeeding town meeting, 
but it shall not be acted upon except at a meeting duly called 
for the purpose, and held seven days at least after the report 
has been filed, as aforesaid, with the town clerk. The divi- 



72 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

sion so arranged by the selectmen may be modified or amended 
at a meeting so held, and when adopted either in its original 
or amended form, by a majority of the legal voters then pre- 
sent and voting thereon, shall be operative. All elections of 
state officers thereafter in such town shall be held in the 
precincts so established, except that an election taking place 
after such division has been made, but before voting lists for 
each precinct have been prepared and copies thereof have 
been posted in the manner and for the number of days re- 
quired by law, shall be held in the manner in which elections 
had previously been held in such town. 

§ 212. The voting precincts of a town may be changed at 
any town meeting duly called for the purpose, if the select- 
men shall have filed in the office of the town clerk, seven 
days at least before the meeting, a statement of the contem- 
plated changes, giving proper boundaries and the numbers or 
letters of the proposed precincts, and the number of registered 
male voters in each proposed precinct, according to the regis- 
tration of voters in such town for the last preceding annual 
state or town election, as the case may be ; but no changes 
other than those so proposed by the selectmen shall be made 
at such meeting. 

§ 213. Whenever a town has been divided into voting pre- 
cincts, or the voting precincts thereof have been changed, in 
accordance with the preceding sections, the selectmen shall 
cause a map or description of the new precincts, designated 
by numbers or letters, as the case may be, and defined clearly 
and, so far as possible, by known boundaries, to be posted in 
the office of the town clerk and in three public places, at 
least, in each such new precinct ; and they shall also cause 
a reasonable number of copies of such map or description to 
be furnished to the registrars of voters and the assessors of 
such town, and to the election officers of each precinct so 
established. 

§ 214. Any town which has been divided into voting pre- 
cincts may, by vote at a meeting duly called for the purpose, 
discontinue all such precincts ; and thereafter the provisions 
of law applicable to such precincts shall cease to apply to such 
town, and all subsequent elections therein shall be held as if 



ELECTIONS AND TOWN MEETINGS. 73 

no such division had been made. A town which has discon- 
tinued all its voting precincts may, however, in any subse- 
quent year accept the provisions which are stated in § 211 
ante, and cause a division into voting precincts to be made 
thereunder. 

§ 215. Whenever voting precincts have been established 
in a town, and whenever a change has been made in the 
voting precincts of a town, the clerk of the town shall forth- 
with give a notice thereof in writing to the secretary of the 
Commonwealth, stating therein the number and designation 
of the precincts in each town. Notice in writing of the dis- 
continuance of voting precincts in a town shall likewise be 
given forthwith by the town clerk to the secretary of the 
Commonwealth. Sts. 1893, ch. 417, §§ 101-105. 

(b) Election Officers. 

§ 216. The selectmen of every town which is divided into 
voting precincts shall, at some time between the first and fif- 
teenth days of October in each year, appoint as election officers 
for each voting precinct, one warden, one deputy warden, one 
clerk, one deputy clerk, two inspectors and two deputy inspec- 
tors, who shall be qualified voters of tbe precinct. The select- 
men of any such town may, in like manner, appoint, in addition 
to the above, two inspectors and two deputy inspectors. Such 
election officers shall be so appointed as equally to represent 
the two leading political parties, except that, without disturbing 
the equal representation of the two leading political parties, not 
exceeding two of such election officers may be appointed from 
qualified voters not representing either of such two parties. 
The warden and one of the inspectors so required to be ap- 
pointed shall be of a different political party from the clerk 
and other inspector, and in each case the principal and his 
deputy shall be of the same political party. Every election 
officer so appointed shall hold office for a term of one year, 
beginning with the first day of November succeeding his 
appointment, and until his successor is appointed and quali- 
fied, or until his removal, as hereinafter provided. 

Every such election officer may be removed from office by 
the selectmen, upon written charges of incompetency or 



74 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

official misconduct, preferred either by the town clerk or by 
not less than six qualified voters of the precinct for which the 
officer is appointed to act. 

§ 217. In case a vacancy in the number of election officers, 
appointed in accordance with the preceding section, shall 
occur on or before the first day of November in any year, or 
in case any one of such election officers shall decline his 
appointment and give notice of his declination to the town 
clerk on or before the first day of November, the selectmen 
shall appoint a person duly qualified for the office so vacant ; 
and appointments for filling such vacancies shall be so made 
as to preserve the equal representation of the two leading 
political parties. In case the warden and deputy warden, or 
clerk and deputy clerk, or an inspector and his deputy shall 
be absent on the day of election, either at the opening of the 
polls or at any time during the day, a suitable person shall 
be elected by the qualified voters of the precinct on nomina- 
tion and by hand vote, and he shall have full power to act 
during the remainder of the time at that election, in place of 
the absent officer. 

§ 218. No person shall at a state election be eligible for 
appointment or election as an election officer in a voting pre- 
cinct or town in which he is a candidate for election ; and if a 
person who has been appointed an election officer subsequently 
becomes such a candidate, and shall neglect forthwith to 
resign his position, the selectmen shall, if he is a candidate 
at a state election, remove him from office before the first day 
of November. 

§ 219. If a warden, clerk, or inspector is absent at the 
opening of the polls or subsequently on the day of election, or 
his office has become vacant, the person appointed as deputy 
of such officer shall act thereafter for that election, in his 
place, as warden, clerk, or inspector, as the case may be. 
Except as aforesaid, no deputy officer shall have power to act 
in an official capacity or be admitted to the space reserved for 
election officers while the polls are open or during the count- 
ing of the votes thereafter. 

§ 220. Every election officer appointed or elected in, ac- 
cordance with the preceding sections shall, before entering 



ELECTIONS AND TOWN MEETINGS. 75 

upon the performance of the duties of his office, be sworn to 
the faithful discharge of his duties. Such oath may be ad- 
ministered by a town clerk or by a justice of the peace ; and 
an election officer who has been chosen at the polls to fill a 
vacancy, or who has not been sworn before the day of elec- 
tion, may also be sworn by the warden or clerk of the voting 
precinct for which he is elected. 

§ 221. In all elections of state officers in a town divided 
into voting precincts, the presiding election officer of each 
voting place or precinct shall detail two inspectors, who shall 
be of different political parties, to act as ballot clerks, who 
shall have charge of the ballots and shall furnish them to 
voters in accordance with the provisions of this act. 

§ 222. The selectmen in towns not divided into voting 
precincts shall preside at all meetings for the election of state 
officers, and shall have all the powers of moderators in towns, 
but the chairman or senior member present of the selectmen, 
acting under their direction, shall be regarded as the presid- 
ing election officer for the enforcement of the provisions of 
this act. 

§ 223. At state elections in towns not divided into voting 
precincts, and at town elections in towns for which ballots 
are provided at the expense of the town, the selectmen in each 
such town shall, at some time prior to the opening of the 
polls, appoint two qualified voters as ballot clerks, who shall 
have charge of the ballots and shall furnish them to voters in 
accordance with the provisions of this act. The selectmen or 
the moderator, as the case may be, presiding over any such 
election, may subsequently appoint additional ballot clerks, 
not exceeding in number one for every four hundred regis- 
tered voters and majority fraction thereof, and may likewise 
fill any vacancy occurring in the number of ballot clerks after 
the opening of the polls. Such ballot clerks shall be so ap- 
pointed, as equally as may be, to represent the two leading 
political parties, except that such additional ballot clerks may 
be appointed from qualified voters not representing either of 
such two parties. Every ballot clerk so appointed shall, 
before entering upon the performance of the duties of his 
office, be sworn to the faithful performance of his duties, and 



76 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

such oath may be administered by the presiding officer, for 
the time being, or the town clerk, and the town clerk shall 
make a record thereof. 

§ 224. Selectmen, wardens, and justices of the peace, 
when presiding in towns at state and town elections, as the 
case may be, may appoint qualified voters of a town as tellers, 
to assist at the ballot box and in checking the names of voters 
upon the voting lists, and in canvassing and counting the 
votes ; and they shall in any such case appoint tellers when 
requested in writing so to do by ten qualified voters of a 
town. When tellers are appointed, as aforesaid, at elections, 
for which ballots are provided at the expense of the Common- 
wealth or of the town, they shall be so appointed that the 
election officers, making and assisting in making the canvass 
and count of votes, shall equally represent the two leading 
political parties. 

No person shall be eligible to the position of teller at an 
election in which he is a candidate to be voted for. 

Tellers appointed as aforesaid shall be sworn to the faithful 
discharge of their duties, and the oath may be administered 
by the presiding officer for the time being, or by the town 
clerk or a justice of the peace, and the clerk shall make a 
record thereof. 

§ 225. In case of a vacancy in the office of the town clerk 
of a town, or in case a town clerk shall be unable to perform 
the duties required hereunder, the selectmen of the town shall 
appoint a clerk pro tempore, in accordance with the provisions 
stated in § 359^£. Sts. 1893, ch. 417, §§ 108-117. 

§ 226. Election officers shall, for the performance of their 
respective duties, attend in their respective voting precincts 
and towns at the times and places duly designated for the 
elections. Election officers in each town .shall receive such 
compensation for each day's actual service as the selectmen 
of the town may from time to time determine ; but no deputy 
officer shall receive compensation, except for attendance at 
the opening of the polls or for services in place of an officer 
who is absent. Sts. 1893, ch. 417, §§ 118, 119. 

§ 227. The governor, by and with the consent of the 
council, shall, upon the petition in writing of ten qualified 



ELECTIONS AND TOWN MEETINGS. 77 

voters in a town, whether divided into voting precincts or 
not, presented to him twenty-one days, at least, before a state 
election therein, appoint for such town, or for each of such 
voting precincts as may be named in the petition, two quali- 
fied voters of the town, who shall not be signers of the peti- 
tion or members of any regularly elected political committee 
or candidates for any office, to act as supervisors at such 
election. Such supervisors shall be appointed, one from each 
of the two leading political parties. They shall be sworn to 
the faithful discharge of their duties by the town clerk or by 
a justice of the peace. The supervisors shall be present at 
the several precincts or polling places for which they are 
appointed, shall have the right to challenge illegal voters, 
and shall throughout witness the conduct of the election and 
the counting of votes, but they shall not make any statement 
tending to reveal the state of the polls before the public decla- 
ration of the vote; and they shall remain where the ballot 
boxes are kept at all times after the polls are open, and 
until the ballots are duly sealed in envelopes for transmis- 
sion to the officers entitled to receive them. Each supervisor 
shall have the right to affix his signature, for the purpose of 
identification, to the certificate of the number of votes cast, 
or to attach thereto any statement which he may desire to 
make touching the truth or fairness or conduct of the elec- 
tion. Supervisors so appointed shall receive such compensa- 
tion for each day's actual service as the selectmen of the 
town may from time to time determine. 

(c) Voting Places. 

§ 228. The selectmen of every town divided into voting 
precincts shall, thirty days at least before the day of the 
annual state election in such town, and ten days at least 
before the day of any special election of a state officer 
therein, designate and appoint the polling place for each of 
the voting precincts in such town, and shall procure the same 
for such purpose, and cause it to be suitably fitted up and 
prepared therefor. Such polling place shall be in a public, 
orderly, and convenient portion of the precinct ; except that, 
when no such polling place can be had within the territorial 



78 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

limits of the precinct, the selectmen may designate and 
appoint a polling place in some public, orderly, and con- 
venient place within the limits of any one of the adjoining 
precincts of such town ; and for the purposes of this act, the 
place so designated and appointed for the polling place of a 
precinct shall be deemed and taken to be included in and to 
be a part of such precinct, as though the same were within 
the territorial limits thereof. No building or portion of a 
building shall be designated, appointed, or used as a polling 
place in which, or in any part of which, intoxicating liquor 
is sold or has been sold within thirty days next preceding the 
day of the election. Whenever the polling places have been so 
designated in a town, the selectmen of a town shall, in at 
least three public places in each precinct of the town, forth- 
with cause to be posted a printed description of the polling 
places so designated, and shall give such further notice thereof 
as they may in any case think necessary or proper. 

§ 229. The selectmen in towns shall cause each polling 
place in their respective towns to be provided with a sufficient 
number of suitable marking shelves or compartments, at or 
in which voters may conveniently mark their ballots, so that 
in the marking thereof they may be screened from the obser- 
vation of others ; and they shall cause a guard rail to be so 
constructed and placed in the polling place that only such 
persons as are inside the guard rail can approach within six 
feet of the ballot boxes and of the marking shelves or com- 
partments. The arrangement shall be such that neither the 
ballot boxes nor the marking shelves or compartments shall 
be hidden from the view of those just outside the guard rail. 
The number of such marking shelves or compartments shall 
not be less than one for every seventy-five registered voters at 
such polling place, and not less than three in any town or 
voting precinct of a town. Each marking shelf or compart- 
ment shall be kept provided with proper supplies and con- 
veniences for marking the ballots. 

(d) Election Apparatus and Blanks. 

§ 230. The secretary of the Commonwealth shall, at the 
expense of the Commonwealth, provide every town with a 



ELECTIONS AND TOWN MEETINGS. 79 

state ballot box for use at every voting precinct or polling 
place therein. The secretary shall likewise provide every 
town with suitable blank forms and apparatus, such as shall 
be approved as aforesaid, for use at each polling place by the 
election officers in the canvass and count of votes. Sts. 1893, 
ch. 417, §§ 120-123. 

§ 231. Any town may, by a majority vote of the legal 
voters thereof present and voting thereon at a meeting held 
not less than ten days before its annual town meeting, de- 
termine upon, purchase, and order the use of one or more 
McTammany automatic ballot machines at elections of town 
officers in said town ; and thereafter at all elections of town 
officers in said town, until otherwise ordered by the board of 
selectmen, said McTammany automatic ballot machines shall 
be used for the purpose of voting for the officers to be elected 
at such elections, and for taking the vote upon the question of 
granting licenses for the sale of intoxicating liquors, and for 
registering and recording the votes cast thereat. Sts. 1893, 
ch. 465, § 1. 

§ 232. The secretary of the Commonwealth shall provide 
every town with suitable blank forms and envelopes for all 
certificates, copies of records and returns required by this act 
to be made to his office, with such printed directions thereon 
as he may deem necessary for the guidance and direction of 
the election officers ; and he shall furnish such other blank 
forms and such suggestions and instructions as will assist the 
election officers in the performance of their duties under 
the requirements of this act. The clerks of the courts in the 
several counties shall in like manner provide towns with suit- 
able blank forms and envelopes for all certificates, copies of 
records and returns required by this act to be made to the 
county commissioners and boards of examiners. 

§ 233. The town clerk of each town shall provide therein 
a place for the safe and suitable keeping of the ballot boxes 
and counting apparatus furnished by the Commonwealth, 
shall have the care and custody thereof, shall see that they 
are kept in good order and repair, and, if any of them are lost, 
destroyed, or irreparably damaged, shall replace the same by 
suitable ballot boxes or apparatus, as is stated in § 230 ante. 



80 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

The custody, care, and repair of all such ballot boxes and 
apparatus shall be at the expense of the town, but shall be 
subject to the supervision and control of the secretary of the 
Commonwealth. 

§ 234. The selectmen of a town may make such regula- 
tions, not inconsistent with the provisions of this act, in re- 
gard to the use of ballot boxes and seals, counting and other 
apparatus, as they may deem expedient. 

§ 235. The clerk of every town divided into voting pre- 
cincts shall furnish to the clerk of each voting precinct a 
seal of suitable device, the design of which shall include the 
designation of such precinct ; and such seal shall be used in 
sealing all envelopes required by law to be used at the elec- 
tions. The clerk of the precinct shall retain the custody of 
the seal, and shall, at the end of his term of office, deliver the 
same, together with the records of the precinct and other 
official documents in his custody, to the town clerk. 

§ 236. The clerk of every town shall send to the election 
officers at each polling place in the town, on the day of an 
election or meeting at which the same are required to be used, 
before the opening of the polls, the ballot box, blank forms 
and counting and other apparatus provided by the secretary 
of the Commonwealth ; and shall send therewith such ballot 
boxes, ballot box seals, blank forms, and apparatus as may be 
required by the selectmen of the town. 

(e) Preparation and Form of Ballots, 

§ 237. All ballots for use in elections of state officers shall 
be prepared and furnished by the secretary of the Common- 
wealth ; and all ballots for use in elections of town officers, in 
a town which has voted that ballots shall be provided at the 
expense of the town, shall be prepared and furnished by the 
town clerk. 

§ 238. General ballots, intended for the use of all male 
voters in a voting precinct or town, shall contain the names 
of all candidates for election in such voting precinct or town, 
who have been duly nominated and have not deceased, or 
whose nominations have not been withdrawn or rejected as 
invalid ; and such general ballots shall, except in the case 



ELECTIONS AND TOWN MEETINGS. 81 

of candidates for presidential electors, contain no other 
names. 

To the name of each candidate for a state office shall be 
added the name of the town in which the candidate resides. 

To the name of each candidate for a state office shall be 
added his party or political designation, expressed in accord- 
ance with §§ 200 and 206 ante. To the name of each candi- 
date for a town office upon an official ballot shall be added 
such designation of the party or principle which the candidate 
represents as is duly contained in the certificate of nomina- 
tion or nomination papers. No greater number of candidates 
for any office bearing the same party or political designation 
shall be placed upon the official ballot than there are persons 
to be elected to such office. 

If the name of a political party, which at the preceding 
annual state election polled for governor three per centum of 
the entire vote cast in the state for that office, is used in con- 
nection with some other name or term, in accordance with 
the provisions stated in § 200 ante, as the designation of a 
candidate nominated for a state office by a nomination paper, 
the words " nomination paper " or " nom. paper " shall be 
added to the political designation of such candidate. 

The names of candidates for every state and town office 
shall, except in the case of candidates for presidential electors, 
be arranged under the designation of the office, in alphabetical 
order according to the surnames. There shall be left at the 
end of the list of candidates for each different office as many 
blank spaces as there are persons to be elected to such office, 
in which the voter may insert the name of any person not 
printed on the ballot, for whom he desires to vote for such 
office. Whenever the approval of a constitutional amendment 
is submitted to the vote of the people, or any other question is 
submitted to vote in a town in accordance with a statute pro- 
viding therefor, such question shall be printed on the ballot 
after the list of candidates. 

Special ballots containing only the names of candidates for 
school committee shall also be prepared in like manner and 
printed for the use of women qualified by law to vote for 
school committee. 

6 



82 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

Ballots shall be so printed as to give to each voter a clear 
opportunity to designate by a cross [X]> in a square at the 
right of the name and designation, if any, of each candidate, 
and at the right of each question, his choice of candidates and 
his answer to such question ; and upon the ballots may be 
printed such words as will aid the voter to do this ; as " vote 
for one," " vote for two," " vote for three," " yes," " no," and 
the like. On the back and outside, when folded, of each ballot, 
shall be printed the words, (i Official Ballot for," followed by 
the designation of the voting precinct or town for which the 
ballot is prepared, the date of election, and a facsimile of the 
signature of the secretary of the Commonwealth or town 
clerk, as the case may be, who has caused the ballot to be 
prepared. Special ballots printed for the use of women quali- 
fied to vote for school committee shall have the additional 
endorsement, " For school committee only." 

§ 239. The names of candidates for the offices of electors 
of president and vice-president of the United States shall 
be arranged in groups, as presented in the several certificates 
of nomination or nomination papers ; and the several groups 
shall be arranged in the alphabetical order of the surnames 
of the candidates for president, and the names of the candi- 
dates in each group shall be printed upon the ballots in two 
adjacent columns of equal width. If candidates are nomi- 
nated at large and for the several congressional districts, 
the name and place of residence of one of the candidates at 
large shall be put at the head of each column, and the names 
of the other candidates with their places of residence, includ- 
ing the numbers of the congressional districts in which they 
reside, shall follow in the numerical order of the districts. 
The surnames of the candidates of each political party for 
the offices of president and vice-president, with the party or 
political designation thereof, at the right of the surnames 
shall be placed in one line above the group of candidates for 
electors of such party. There shall be left at the right of 
each such party or political designation a sufficient clear 
square in which each voter may designate by a cross [X] his 
choice for electors ; and no other clear space or margin shall 
be left in any such group of candidates. There shall be left 



ELECTIONS AND TOWN MEETINGS. 83 

at the end of the groups of candidates as many blank spaces 
as there are persons to be elected to the offices of electors. 

§ 240. The official ballots furnished in accordance with the 
provisions of this act shall, except as otherwise specially pro- 
vided herein, be of plain white paper and in weight not less 
than that of ordinary printing paper, shall be in two or more 
pages, and shall, before distribution, be so folded as to meas- 
ure when folded not less than four and one half inches nor 
more than five inches in width, and not less than six inches 
nor more than thirteen and one half inches in length. The 
names of all candidates shall be printed in black ink in 
lines at a right angle with the length of the ballot. The 
names of all candidates, other than candidates for presiden- 
tial electors and for president and vice-president, shall be in 
capital letters not less than one eighth of an inch nor more 
than one quarter of an inch in height. The initial letters 
of all names of candidates for presidential electors shall be 
in capital letters not less than one eighth nor more than one 
quarter of an inch in height ; and the surnames and political 
designations of the candidates of each party for president 
and vice-president shall be in capital letters not less than 
three sixteenths of an inch in height. 

The special ballots for the use of women qualified to vote 
for school committee shall be printed on tinted paper, but of 
a different tint from that of specimen ballots. 

§ 241. There shall be provided for each polling place at 
which an election for state officers is to be held, two sets of 
general ballots, each of not less than sixty ballots for every 
fifty and fraction of fifty registered male voters therein. 

When ballots are required by law to be provided by the 
town clerk of a town for the election of town officers therein, 
there shall be provided one set of general ballots of not less 
than seventy-five ballots for every fifty and fraction of fifty 
registered male voters therein ; and likewise one set of special 
ballots of not less than seventy-five ballots for every fifty and 
fraction of fifty women registered to vote for school com- 
mittee therein. 

§ 242. All ballots, when printed and folded as is stated 
in § 240 ante, shall be arranged and fastened together in 



84 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

convenient numbers in packages, books or blocks, in such 
manner that each ballot may be detached and removed sepa- 
rately. A record of the number of ballots printed and fur- 
nished to each polling place shall be kept and preserved by 
the secretary of the Commonwealth, or town clerk, as the 
case may be, for the period of one year. 

§ 243. The secretary of the Commonwealth shall furnish 
sufficient partial ballots in state elections to a town for the 
use of voters who by law may be entitled to vote for a part 
only of the officers to be voted for in such town. There shall 
be printed on the back of such ballots, in addition to the 
official endorsement, such words as shall clearly indicate the 
class of voters for whose use the ballots are furnished, and 
such ballots only shall be furnished to such voters. 

§ 244. In case a vacancy shall occur or be declared in 
the list of nominations by reason of the death, withdrawal 
or ineligibility of a candidate, under the provisions stated in 
§§ 196-210 ante, the name of the candidate nominated in 
accordance therewith to fill such vacancy, shall, if the bal- 
lots are not already printed, be placed on the ballots, instead 
of the original nomination; or, if the ballots have been 
printed, new ballots containing the new nomination shall, 
whenever practicable, be furnished and substituted in place 
of those already prepared. 

(f) Information to Voters. 

§ 245. The secretary of the Commonwealth in state elec- 
tions, and the several town clerks in town elections for which 
ballots are by law provided at the expense of the town, shall 
prepare and furnish for use in every such election, full in- 
structions for the guidance of voters at such elections, as to 
obtaining ballots, as to the manner of marking them and the 
method of gaining assistance, and as to obtaining new ballots 
in place of those accidentally spoiled ; and they shall cause 
the same, together with such abstracts as they shall deem 
proper to make of the provisions of law imposing penalties 
upon voters, to be printed in large, clear type, on separate 
cards, to be called cards of instruction. They shall in like 
manner prepare and furnish for each polling place ten or 



ELECTIONS AND TOWN MEETINGS. 85 

more copies of the ballots provided for distribution at the 
election therein. Such copies shall be called specimen bal- 
lots, and shall be printed without the facsimile endorsements 
and on tinted paper. 

§ 246. The secretary of the Commonwealth shall, five 
days at least previous to the day of any state election, trans- 
mit to the registrars of voters in each town in which such 
election is to be held, printed lists containing the names, 
residences and party or political designations of all candi- 
dates duly nominated and to be voted for at each polling 
place in every such town, substantially in the form of the 
general ballot to be soused therein; and shall likewise trans- 
mit the printed copies of any proposed amendment to the 
constitution which may be submitted to vote at such election. 
The registrars of voters shall immediately cause the lists 
for each voting precinct or. town, as the case may be, and 
any such copies of a proposed amendment to the constitu- 
tion, to be conspicuously posted in one or more public places 
in every sucli voting precinct or town. Sts. 1893, ch. 417, 
§§ 124-138. 

§ 247. At every election of town officers in a town, for 
which ballots are by law provided at the expense of the 
town, the town clerk shall, four days at least previous to 
the day of such election therein, cause to be conspicuously 
posted in one or more public places in the town, substan- 
tially in the form of the general ballot to be used there- 
in, the names and residences and designations, if any, of 
all candidates duly nominated and to be voted for at such 
election. 

(g) Delivery of Ballots, 

§ 248. The secretary of the Commonwealth shall send 
the two sets of ballots with specimen ballots, cards of in- 
struction, and copies of any proposed amendment to the 
constitution, required by law to be provided by him, sepa- 
rately and at different times or by different methods, to the 
several town clerks, so that both sets shall be received by 
the clerks twelve hours, at least, previous to the day of elec- 
tion. The respective town clerks shall, on delivery to them 



86 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

of such ballots, return receipts therefor to the secretary. 
Sts. 1893, ch. 417, §§ 140, 141. 

§ 249. The town clerk of every town in which ballots for 
town officers have been by law provided at the expense of the 
town, shall cause the ballots, with specimen ballots and 
cards of instruction, to be packed in separate packages with 
marks on the outside indicating their respective contents; 
and the packages of ballots for voters shall also be sealed 
and marked with the number of ballots of each kind 
enclosed. 

§ 250. The town clerk of each town shall, on the day of 
every state election, before the opening of the polls, send to' 
the election officers of each polling place therein, one set of 
ballots with accompanying specimen ballots, cards of instruc- 
tion and copies of proposed amendments to the constitution, 
if any, which have been furnished and marked for such poll- 
ing place; and a receipt for the delivery thereof shall be 
returned to the clerk from the presiding or senior election 
officer present at the polling place, which receipt, with a 
record of the number of ballots sent, shall be kept in the 
clerk's office for the period of one year. The second set of 
ballots shall be retained by the town clerk until they are 
called for, for the purposes of voting; and, upon the requi- 
sition in writing of the presiding election officer of any poll- 
ing place, the second set of ballots shall be furnished to such 
polling place in the manner above provided as to the first 
set. When ballots are provided for the election of town 
officers in a town at the expense of the town, the town clerk 
shall deliver all such ballots, and the specimen ballots and 
cards of instructions at the polling place on the day of the 
election before the opening of the polls. 

§ 251. In case the ballots to be furnished to any polling 
place in a town, in accordance with the provisions of this 
act, shall for any reason fail to be duly delivered, or in case 
after delivery they shall be destroyed or stolen, it shall be 
the duty of the clerk of such town to cause other ballots to 
be prepared substantially in the form of the ballots so to be 
furnished and wanting; and upon receipt of such other bal- 
lots from the clerk, accompanied by a statement by him 



ELECTIONS AND TOWN MEETINGS. 87 

under oath that the same have been so prepared and fur- 
nished by him, and that the original ballots have so failed 
to be received or have been so destroyed or stolen, the elec- 
tion officers of such polling place shall cause the ballots so 
substituted to be used instead of the ballots wanting as 
above. 

CONDUCT OF ELECTIONS AND METHOD OF VOTING. 

(a) Calling of Elections. 

§ 252. The annual state election for the choice of gov- 
ernor, lieutenant-governor, councillors, secretary, treasurer 
and receiver-general, auditor, attorney-general, and senators 
and representatives in the general court shall be held on the 
Tuesday next after the first Monday in November, as pre- 
scribed in the constitution. There shall likewise be chosen 
at the annual state election, in the years in which such offi- 
cers are by law respectively to be chosen, electors of presi- 
dent and vice-president of the United States, and, in their 
respective districts or counties, representatives in congress, 
district attorneys, clerks of the courts, registers of probate 
and insolvency, registers of deeds, commissioners of insol- 
vency, county commissioners, special commissioners, sheriffs, 
and county treasurers. 

§ 253. Meetings of the qualified voters of each town for 
the election of state officers and of town officers shall, except 
as otherwise provided in this act, be called as ordered by the 
town, subject to the provisions stated in §§ 339-342 post for 
the calling and holding of town meetings in towns. Meet- 
ings for the annual state and town elections shall, however, 
in all cases be called, as above provided, at least seven days 
before the day prescribed for the holding thereof. 

§ 254. All notices or warrants for meetings for the elec- 
tion of state officers, and for the election of town officers for 
which ballots are provided at the expense of the town, shall 
specify what officers are to be elected or voted for at such 
meetings, and whenever a proposed amendment to the con- 
stitution or other question is to be submitted to the people, 
shall contain a copy of the proposed amendment printed in 
full and of any other question so to be submitted. They 



88 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

shall specify the time when the polls for the choice of the 
several officers will be opened, and they shall further specify 
in towns when the polls may be closed. In towns, meetings 
for the election of state officers may be opened as early as 
six o'clock in the forenoon, and shall be opened as early as 
twelve o'clock, noon. The polls shall be kept open four 
hours at least, and until the time specified in the warrant 
when they may be closed ; and they may be opened for such 
longer time as the majority of the voters present shall by 
vote direct, but they shall not, except as is stated in § 259 
post, be kept open after the hour of sunset; and after an 
announcement has been made by the presiding officer of a 
time so fixed by vote for closing, such time shall not be 
changed to an earlier hour. In meetings for the election 
of town officers as aforesaid, the polls shall be kept open 
four hours at least. 

(b) Conduct of Elections, 

§ 255. In elections of town officers in towns, for which 
ballots have by law been provided at the expense of the 
town, the town clerk shall, on the day of election, before 
the opening of the polls, cause not less than three cards of 
instruction and not less than five specimen ballots to be 
posted in or about the polling place outside the guard rail, 
and shall cause cards of instruction to be posted at or in 
each marking shelf or compartment inside the guard rail. 
The town clerk shall likewise on the day of election, before 
the opening of the polls, deliver the ballots to the ballot 
clerks, who shall receipt therefor, and their receipt shall be 
preserved in the office of the clerk for the period of one 
year. No such ballots shall, however, be delivered to voters 
until a moderator has been chosen in the manner provided 
by law. 

In elections of state officers in towns, the presiding elec- 
tion officer shall perform the same duties that town clerks 
perform in the case of elections of town officers. 

§ 256. The state ballot boxes, furnished in accordance 
with the provisions of this act, shall be used for receiving 
the ballots in all state elections in towns, in all elections 



ELECTIONS AND TOWN MEETINGS. 89 

of town officers in towns for which ballots are provided at 
the expense of the town, and also in taking the vote upon 
any proposed amendment to the constitution, upon the ques- 
tion of granting licenses for the sale of intoxicating liquors, 
and upon any other question submitted by statute to the 
voters of the Commonwealth or of any town, for which 
ballots are by law provided at the expense of the Common- 
wealth, or of any town. The election officers at each polling 
place shall, at the opening of the polls and before any ballots 
are received, publicly open the ballot box, and ascertain by 
personal examination, and publicly show that the same is 
empty, and shall immediately thereafter lock or fasten the 
box. The clerk of the precinct or town shall make a record 
of the condition of the box register, and, if a key is used, it 
shall be taken and retained by the police officer or constable 
in attendance at the polling place. The ballot box shall 
not, after it is shown to be empty, be removed from public 
view until all ballots have been removed therefrom and the 
box has been relocked or sealed. No ballot shall be removed 
from the ballot box while the polls are open, and the box 
shall not be opened until the polls are closed, except that, in 
order to make room for the deposit of all the ballots cast, 
the presiding officer may, in the presence of all the election 
officers, open the box and pack and press down the ballots 
therein, and except further that, both in towns and precincts 
of towns, the ballot-box may be opened and ballots taken 
therefrom for counting, whenever it is deemed necessary or 
advisable so to do in the unanimous judgment of the select- 
men and town clerk, or in the judgment of both the moderator 
and town clerk of the town, as the case may be, or in the 
unanimous judgment of the election officers of the voting 
precinct of the town. 

The presiding officer of each polling place of a town shall 
have charge of the ballot box and ballot box seal, and shall, 
at the close of each election, return the same, either person- 
ally or by the hand of the police officer or constable in 
attendance at the polling place, to the town clerk. 

If for any cause it shall become impossible at any such 
election, or in. taking any such vote, to use the state ballot 



90 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

box, the voting shall proceed in such manner as the presid- 
ing officer of such polling place shall direct, and in such 
case the clerk thereof shall make a record of the facts per- 
taining to the failure to use such ballot box, and shall 
'enclose an attested copy of such record in the envelope with 
the ballots cast at such election or in taking such vote. The 
foregoing provisions as to the use and custody of the state 
ballot box shall, so far as applicable, apply to the ballot box 
substituted therefor. 

§ 257. One of the voting lists of the voting precinct or 
town, as the case may be, transmitted by the registrars of 
voters, shall be delivered to the ballot clerks, and the other 
voting list shall be delivered to the election officers in 
charge of the ballot box, and such lists shall be used by 
them respectively in checking the names of voters both 
when receiving their ballots and when depositing their 
ballots. The officers in charge of the ballot box and of 
the voting list used thereat shall be of different political 
parties. Sts. 1893, ch. 417, §§ 143-151. 

§ 258. No election officer shall, before the public decla- 
ration of the vote at an election, make any statement of the 
number of -ballots cast, the number of votes given for any 
person, the name of any person who has voted, the name of 
any person which has not been voted on, or of any other 
fact tending to show the state of the polls. No persons, 
other than the election officers, supervisors, and voters 
admitted in accordance with the provisions of this act, 
shall, during the progress of an election and until public 
declaration of the vote has been made, be permitted inside 
the guard rail, except by authority of the election officers 
for the purpose of keeping order and enforcing the law. 
Sts. 1893, ch. 417, §§ 152, 153. 

§ 259. No more than four voters, besides election officers 
and supervisors, in excess of the number of marking shelves 
or compartments provided, shall be allowed at one time 
within the space enclosed by the guard rail, and except the 
election officers and supervisors, no voters shall be admitted 
therein after the time fixed for closing the polls, but voters 
previously admitted shall be allowed a period not exceeding 



ELECTIONS AND TOWN MEETINGS. 91 

five minutes succeeding the time so fixed, within which to 
deposit their ballots. 

§ 260. The selectmen of a town may make such regula- 
tions, not inconsistent with the provisions of this act, in re- 
gard to the receiving of ballots, as they may deem expedient. 

§ 261. The presiding officer at each polling place in a 
town, for the time being, shall secure the observance of all 
the provisions here stated relative to the duties of election 
officers. He shall possess full authority to maintain regu- 
larity and order and to enforce obedience fco his lawful com- 
mands, during an election, and during the canvass and 
counting of the votes after the closing of the polls, and shall 
have full authority to preserve peace and good order at and 
around the polling place and to keep the access thereto open 
and unobstructed, and he may require any police officer, 
constable or other person present to communicate his orders 
and directions, and to assist in the enforcement of such 
authority. 

§ 262. The board or officer in charge of the police force 
of each town shall detail a sufficient number of police officers 
or constables who shall be stationed at each polling place 
in .the town at every election therein, to preserve order and 
to protect the election officers and supervisors from any 
interference with or obstruction in the performance of their 
respective duties, and to aid in enforcing the provisions of 
this act. Sts. 1893, ch. 417, §§ 154-157. ' 

(c) Manner of Voting. 

§ 263. A person, when desiring to vote at an election 
for which ballots are provided at the expense of the Common- 
wealth or of a town under the provisions of this act, shall, 
at the polling place for which he is registered as a voter, 
give his name, and if requested so to do ? his residence to one 
of the ballot clerks, who shall thereupon announce the same 
in a loud and distinct tone of voice, clear and audible ; and 
if such name is found upon the voting list by the ballot 
clerk having charge thereof, the ballot clerk shall likewise 
repeat the name, and the voter shall then be allowed to enter 
the space enclosed by the guard rail. The ballot clerk shall 



92 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

give him one, and only one, ballot, and the name of the 
voter shall be immediately checked on the voting list. If 
the voter is a woman, she shall receive a special ballot con- 
taining the names of candidates for school committee only. 

§ 264. The voter on receiving his ballot, shall forthwith 
and without leaving the enclosed space, retire alone to one 
of the marking shelves or compartments, and shall, except 
in the case of voting for electors of president and vice-presi- 
dent, prepare his ballot by marking in the square a cross [x] 
at the right of the name and designation, if any, of the can- 
didate of his choice for each office to be filled, or by insert- 
ing the name of the candidate of his choice in the blank 
space provided therefor, and marking a cross [x] in the 
square at the right of the same ; and, in case of a question 
submitted to the vote of the people, by marking a cross [x] 
in the square at the right of the answer which he desires to 
give. 

§ 265. A voter, who desires to vote for an entire group 
of candidates for electors of president and vice-president of 
the United States, shall mark a cross [x] in the square at 
the right of the party or political designation immediately 
above such group, and such cross [x] shall count as a vote 
for each candidate in such group. If a voter desires not to 
vote for one or more candidates in the group for which he 
marks, he may erase the name of such candidate or candi- 
dates, and the cross [X] in the square above-mentioned shall 
count as a vote for each of the other candidates in such 
group. When a voter desires to vote for another person, in 
place of a candidate whose name he has erased, he may 
insert in one of the blank spaces at the end of the groups of 
candidates for electors, the name of the person of his choice, 
and mark a cross [X] in the square at the right of such 
name. A voter who does not mark for any group of candi- 
dates, may vote for one or more candidates for electors, up 
to the whole number to be elected, by inserting a name or 
names in one or more of the blank spaces at the end of the 
groups of electors, and marking a cross [X] in the square at 
the right of each name so inserted. 

§ 266. A voter who declares to the presiding officer 



ELECTIONS AND TOWN MEETINGS. 93 

that he was a voter before the first day of May in the year 
eighteen hundred and fifty-seven, and cannot read, or who 
declares that by blindness or other physical disability he is 
unable to mark his ballot, shall, upon request, be assisted 
in the marking thereof by one or two of the election officers, 
which officer or officers shall, if requested by him, be of 
such political party, represented among the election officers, 
as the voter may designate; and the officer or officers so 
assisting shall certify on the outside of the ballot, that it 
was so marked with his or their assistance, and shall there- 
after give no information regarding the same. The presid- 
ing officer shall require such declaration of disability to be 
made before him by the voter under oath, and he is hereby 
qualified to administer such oath. 

§ 267. No election officer or other person shall place 
upon a ballot any distinguishing mark whatsoever, except 
as authorized by the provisions of this act. 

§ 268. If a voter spoils a ballot, he may successively 
obtain two others, one at a time, upon returning each 
spoiled one, and all ballots so returned, shall be imme- 
diately cancelled by the election officers. 

§ 269. Before leaving the marking shelf or compartment, 
the voter shall fold his ballot, without displaying the marks 
thereon, in the same way in which it was folded when 
received by him, and he shall keep the same so folded until 
he has voted. No voter shall be allowed to occupy a mark- 
ing shelf or compartment already occupied by another, nor 
to remain in such enclosed space more than ten minutes, 
nor to occupy a voting shelf or compartment for more than 
five minutes, in case all of the marking shelves or compart- 
ments are in use and other voters are waiting to occupy the 
same. 

§ 270. A voter after marking his ballot shall at once 
proceed to deposit the same in the ballot box, shall let no 
one see his ballot so as to know how he is about to vote, 
and, upon so offering to vote, he shall give his name and if 
requested so to do, his residence, to the presiding officer, 
who shall thereupon announce the name in a loud and dis- 
tinct tone of voice, clear and audible; and if such name is 



94 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

found upon the voting list by the election officer having 
charge thereof, he shall, in a loud and distinct tone of voice, 
clear and audible, repeat the name and check it upon the 
voting list ; and the voter may then deposit his ballot in the 
ballot box, which he shall do with the official endorsement 
uppermost and in sight. No ballot without the official en- 
dorsement, except as otherwise stated in § 251 ante, shall be 
allowed to be deposited in the ballot box. No person shall 
so vote whose name is not on the voting list, nor until the 
election officer as above shall find and check his name there- 
on, unless such person presents a certificate from the regis- 
trars of voters as is stated in § 192 ante, which certificate 
shall be checked as therein required. 

§ 271. A voter who has entered the space enclosed by 
the guard rail, shall mark and deposit his ballot without 
undue delay, and shall leave such enclosed space as soon as 
he has voted. A voter who has been given a ballot for the 
purpose of voting, shall deposit it in the ballot box, or shall 
return it to a ballot clerk; and no person shall take or 
remove any ballot from the polling place or outside the 
guard rail, before the close of the polls. No voter, other 
than an election officer and supervisor, who has once entered 
such enclosed space, and whose name has been checked on 
the voting list in charge of the ballot clerk, shall be allowed 
to re-enter such enclosed space during the election. 

§ 272. If in any state election, or town election in which 
ballots are provided at the expense of the town, the right of 
a person offering to vote is challenged for any cause recog- 
nized by law, the presiding officer shall require the name 
and residence of the person so offering to vote, to be written 
by himself or by some one in his behalf, on the outside of 
the ballot so offered, and the presiding officer shall add 
thereto the name of the person so challenging and the 
assigned cause for which the challenge is made, before such 
ballot shall be received ; but nothing in this section shall be 
construed as permitting election officers to receive any bal- 
lot which by law they are required to refuse. No election 
officer, otherwise than as above required or permitted, and 
no person other than an election officer shall make any state- 



ELECTIONS AND TOWN MEETINGS. 95 

ment or give any information in regard to a ballot cast by a 
voter so challenged at any such election, except as required 
by law. 

(d) Counting of Votes. 

§ 273. The blank forms and apparatus provided by the 
secretary of the Commonwealth, in accordance with the pro- 
visions of this act, shall be used in ascertaining the result 
of the election or vote in all state elections in towns, in all 
elections of town officers in towns for which ballots are 
provided at the expense of the town, and also in taking the 
vote upon any proposed amendment to the constitution, upon 
the question of granting licenses for the sale of intoxicating 
liquors, and upon any other question submitted by statute 
to the voters of the Commonwealth, or of any town, for 
which ballots are by law provided at the expense of the 
Commonwealth or of any town. If however, for any cause, 
it shall become impossible at any such election, or in taking 
any such vote, to use such blank forms or apparatus, or any 
of them, the canvass and counting of the votes shall proceed 
in such manner as the presiding officer of the polling place 
shall direct ; and in such case, the clerk thereof shall make 
a record of the facts pertaining to the failure to use such 
blank forms or apparatus, and shall enclose an attested copy 
of such record in the envelope with the ballots cast at such 
election or in taking such vote. 

§ 274. At every election and in the taking of every vote 
at which the state ballot box and blank forms and apparatus 
are used, as is stated in § 256 ante, and the preceding sec- 
tion, the clerk of the voting precinct or town, as the case 
may be, shall, as soon as the polls are closed, make a 
record of the ballot box register; the election officers in 
charge of each voting list shall, publicly and in the presence 
of the other election officers, count, in a distinct and audible 
voice, the number of names checked on each list, and an- 
nounce the whole number of names checked thereon; and 
the ballot box shall then be opened by the presiding officer, 
and the ballots shall be taken therefrom. The ballots shall, 
under the direction of the presiding officer, be audibly 
counted, one by one, and when the counting is completed, 



96 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

the whole number of ballots cast shall be publicly announced 
by him. The ballots shall then be divided into blocks or 
packages, each of a convenient number for canvassing and 
counting, and, except as hereinafter in this section provided, 
each block or package shall be canvassed and counted by 
two election officers representing the two leading political 
parties detailed for the purpose by the presiding officer ; each 
election officer, in so canvassing and counting votes, shall 
be under the inspection of an election officer of a different 
political party; and the result of each such canvass and 
count shall be reported to the presiding officer, who shall 
cause each such result to be correctly recorded on the blank 
forms provided by law for the purpose. At state elections 
in towns not divided into voting precincts, the canvass and 
count of votes shall be made by the selectmen and town 
clerk, who may, however, be assisted by tellers appointed 
in accordance with the provisions stated in § 224 ante. The 
clerk of the voting precinct or town, as the case may be, 
shall, when the total result of the canvass and counting of 
votes has been ascertained, make public announcement 
thereof in open meeting, and shall, in open meeting, enter, 
in words at length in his records, the total number of 
names of male and female voters checked on the voting 
lists, the total number of ballots cast, the names of all 
persons voted for, the number of votes received for each 
person and the title of the office for which he was proposed, 
the number of blank ballots for each office, and the number 
of affirmative and negative votes in answer to any question 
submitted to the voters. Each clerk of a voting precinct 
shall forthwith make a copy of the record so made by him, 
seal and certify the same, and deliver it to the town clerk, 
who shall forthwith enter the same in the town records. 

The checked voting lists and all ballots, after being 
removed from the ballot box, shall be kept within the 
unobstructed view of the voters present at the polling place, 
until they have been enclosed and sealed in accordance 
with the provisions of this act, and all proceedings in the 
canvass and counting of votes shall be public and within 
the unobstructed view of the voters as aforesaid; and no 



ELECTIONS AND TOWN MEETINGS. 97 

adjournment or postponement shall be had until the canvass 
and counting are fully completed, and the voting lists and 
ballots have been enclosed and sealed as by law provided. 

When in towns and precincts of towns, the ballots are 
removed from the ballot box before the closing of the polls, 
in accordance with the provisions stated in § 256 ante, the 
canvass and counting of the votes shall thereupon be made, 
subject however to the foregoing provisions of this section. 

§ 275. No ballots shall be counted in ascertaining the 
result in any election or in the taking of any vote, in which 
the use of a state ballot box is required in accordance with 
the provisions stated in § 256 ante, unless they have been 
deposited in such ballot box and cancelled thereby, or have 
been otherwise deposited in accordance with the provisions 
stated in said section; and no ballots shall be counted in 
any election for which ballots are by law provided at the 
expense of the Commonwealth or at that of the town, unless 
they have been provided in accordance with the provisions 
of this act. If a voter marks more names than there are 
persons to be elected to an office, or if for any reason it is 
impossible to determine the choice of the voter for any office 
to be filled, his ballot shall not be counted for such office. 
Ballots cast but not counted, for any purpose, shall be 
marked "defective," on the outside thereof, and shall be 
kept and preserved the same as ballots which are counted. 

§ 276. The presiding officer at every polling place in a 
town, at elections of state officers and at elections of town 
officers in towns, for which ballots are provided at the ex- 
pense of the town, shall cause all the ballots cast, after they 
have been duly canvassed and counted and record thereof 
has been made, publicly to be enclosed in an envelope and 
sealed with the seal by law provided for the purpose, and 
also with the private seal of any election officer who may 
desire to affix the same ; and a majority of the election offi- 
cers of the voting precinct or town shall endorse upon such 
envelope for what officers and in what polling place the 
ballots were cast, and the date of the election; and they 
shall make a certificate on the envelope that all the ballots 
cast for state or town officers, as the case may be, by the 

7 



98 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

voters of such precinct or town, and none other, are con- 
tained in such envelope. 

The presiding officer at each polling place in every such 
election shall cause the voting lists used at such election to 
be enclosed in an envelope and sealed as aforesaid, and a 
majority of the election officers of the voting precinct or 
town shall certify thereon to the identity of the voting lists 
so enclosed. The presiding officer shall likewise cause all 
ballots which are not distributed to voters and all ballots 
which are returned by voters and cancelled, to be enclosed 
in an envelope and sealed as aforesaid, and shall make a 
certificate on the envelope as to the identity of such undis- 
tributed and cancelled ballots. 

The presiding officer shall forthwith personally deliver to 
the town clerk or transmit to him by the police officer or 
constable in attendance at the election, all the ballots cast, 
all undistributed and cancelled ballots, and the voting lists, 
sealed as aforesaid, together with the ballot box, ballot box 
seals, and counting apparatus. 

§ 277. The town clerk of a town may, after any such 
voting list has been used in such town or in any voting 
precinct thereof, unseal and open the envelope containing 
such list, and may make a copy thereof upon written appli- 
cation therefor, signed by not less than ten legal voters of 
such town. Immediately after any such voting list has been 
so copied, the town clerk shall again enclose the list in an 
envelope and seal the same, and shall certify on the envelope 
to the identity and original condition of such lists. 

§ 278. Every town clerk shall receive the envelope con- 
taining the ballots cast at an election and transmitted to 
bim in accordance with the preceding sections, and shall 
retrain the same in his custody subject to. the requirements 
of law, and until such requirements have been complied 
with; and, as soon as may be thereafter, the clerk shall 
cause all such ballots to be destroyed, without examining 
them or permitting them to be examined by any person 
whatsoever, and shall make an entry in the town records 
that all such ballots have been so destroyed. 

Every town clerk shall retain in his custody the voting 



ELECTIONS AND TOWN MEETINGS. 99 

lists and undistributed and cancelled ballots, transmitted 
to him in accordance with the provisions of the preceding 
sections, during the same time as is above required by law 
for the preservation of ballots ; and, as soon as may be there- 
after, he shall transmit such voting lists to the registrars of 
voters of the town, and the registrars shall preserve them 
for future reference in such manner as they may deem best. 
The clerk shall cause the cancelled ballots to be destroyed 
in the same manner as the ballots cast, but may make such 
disposition of the undistributed ballots as he may deem 
proper. 

(e) Certificates of Election. 

§ 279. In determining the number of votes cast at an 
election, no record of votes cast or copy of any such record 
shall be rejected if the number of votes given for each can- 
didate for an office can be ascertained. 

§ 280. The selectmen and town clerk of every town 
divided into voting precincts shall forthwith, after every 
state election therein, examine the copies of the records 
made by the election officers of each precinct, and if any 
error appears therein, they shall forthwith give notice of 
such error to the election officers by whom the error has 
been made ; and such election officers shall forthwith make 
under oath a new and additional record in conformity to the 
truth, and deliver a copy thereof to the town clerk; and any 
such additional copy of the records made by the election 
officers, whether with or without notice as aforesaid, shall 
be received by the town clerk at any time before the expi- 
ration of the day preceding the last day on which such clerk 
is by law allowed or required to transmit copies of records 
of the votes cast in the town. All original and additional 
copies of the records made as above, shall be examined by 
the selectmen and town clerk of the town, and made part 
of the records of such election ; and in towns the selectmen 
and town clerk shall certify and attest copies of the records 
of votes for the several candidates, in accordance with the 
requirements of the provisions of this act. 

§ 281. The town clerk of every town shall, within ten 



100 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

days from the day of any election therein for representative 
in congress, governor, lieutenant-governor, councillor, sec- 
retary, treasurer and receiver-general, auditor, attorney- 
general, commissioners of insolvency, clerk of courts, 
register of probate and insolvency, sheriff, district attor- 
ney, or senator, or for electors of president and vice- 
president of the United States, transmit to the secretary 
of the Commonwealth copies of the records of the votes 
for such officers, which copies shall be certified by the 
selectmen, and shall be attested and sealed by the clerk. 
The town clerk of every town shall, in like manner, within 
ten days after an election therein for county treasurer or 
register of deeds, transmit to the county commissioners of 
the county for which such officers are to be chosen, copies 
of the records of the votes for such officers, certified, attested, 
and sealed as aforesaid ; and shall within ten days after an 
election therein for county commissioner or special commis- 
sioners, transmit to the clerk of the courts for the county 
the records of the votes for such officers, so certified, 
attested, and sealed; except that the records of the votes 
cast in the county of Suffolk for register of deeds shall be 
transmitted to the board of aldermen of the city of Boston, 
and the records of the votes cast in the city of Chelsea and 
the towns of Revere and Winthrop in said county for 
county commissioner and special commissioners shall be 
transmitted to the clerk of the courts for the county of 
Middlesex. 

The town clerks shall transmit all such copies of the 
records of votes in envelopes, upon the outside of which 
they shall specify the offices for which the votes were 
cast, and, in case officers are elected for divisions of the 
Commonwealth, the divisions in which the votes are 
cast. 

§ 282. The town clerk on the receipt of a notice from 
the secretary that the copy of the record of the votes cast 
in the election in the town was not sealed according to law, 
shall make and attest another copy of the record of the 
votes cast at such election, which copy shall be certified 
by the selectmen, and the clerk shall transmit the same to 



ELECTIONS AND TOWN MEETINGS. 101 

the secretary, sealed as required in the ease of the original 
copy. Sts. 1893, ch. 417, §§ 161-180. 

§ 283. Whenever, upon examination of the copies of the 
records of votes, made in accordance with the requirements 
of the preceding sections, it shall appear to the governor 
and council, to the board of examiners, or to the county 
commissioners, that any such copy is incomplete or errone- 
ous, the body so making the examination may order a new 
copy of the records to be made and transmitted in the 
manner provided for making and transmitting the original 
copies ; such new copy shall be transmitted by the clerk of 
the town within seven days after the date of the order requir- 
ing the same to be made, and if found to be correct, and in 
conformity to the requirements of law, shall thereupon have 
the same force and effect as an original copy correctly 
made and transmitted. 

§ 284. If a representative district for the election of 
representatives in the general court is composed of one 
town, the selectmen of the town shall forthwith examine 
the records of the votes for the office of representative, shall 
determine what person or persons appear to be elected in 
accordance therewith ; and they shall cause to be entered at 
length by the town clerk, in the records of the town, the 
names of all persons for whom votes for representative were 
given in the district, and the number of votes given for each 
such person. 

§ 285. If a representative district is composed of two or 
more towns, or of one or more towns and one or more wards 
of a city, the election officers in every voting precinct in 
each such district and the selectmen and town clerk of each 
town therein not divided into voting precincts, shall, as 
soon as the vote for representatives has been recorded, cause 
to be made a complete copy of the record of the votes for the 
office of representative, shall certify and seal such copy and 
deliver the same to the town clerk. 

The town clerks of every town in each such district shall 
meet at the place designated, in accordance with the pro- 
visions of the following section, at noon, or as soon there- 
after as possible, on the tenth day succeeding the day of the 



102 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

election, except that they shall meet on the fourth day 
succeeding the day of an election to fill a vacancy in such 
office. The clerks at such meeting shall open, examine, and 
compare the copies of the records of the votes of every such 
voting precinct and town, and determine therefrom what 
person or persons appear to be elected to the office of repre- 
sentative. They shall make in words at length and certify 
a schedule of the names of all persons for whom votes for 
representative were given in the district, and the number of 
votes given for each person; and the clerk of each town 
shall, within four days after the day of the meeting, make 
a copy of such schedule in the records of such town. Sts. 
1893, eh. 417, §§ 193-195. 

§ 286. The town clerks, when examining the copies of 
the records of the votes for the office of representative in a 
representative district, shall, if any error appears therein, 
forthwith give notice of such error to the election officers by 
whom the error is made ; and such election officers shall 
forthwith make under oath a new and additional record in 
conformity to the truth, and transmit a copy thereof to the 
clerks requiring the same. Any additional copy of the 
records made by the election officers shall be examined by 
the clerks if received by them within two days from the 
time appointed for their meeting; and for such purpose 
their meeting may be adjourned for a period not exceeding 
two days. 

§ 287. The selectmen of a town, or the clerks of towns, 
as the case may be, acting in a representative district, after 
having determined, in accordance with the provisions of the 
preceding sections, what person or persons appear to have 
been elected to the office of representative in such district, 
shall, or a majority of them shall, make duplicate certifi- 
cates of election of the person or persons so appearing to be 
elected ; and they shall, within fifteen days after the day of 
the election, transmit one of such certificates to the secretary 
of the Commonwealth, and shall, by a constable or other 
proper officer, transmit the other certificate to the person 
named therein as elected. Such certificates of election 
shall be in substance as follows: — 



ELECTIONS AND TOWN MEETINGS. 103 

Commonwealth of Massachusetts, County of . Pursuant 

to a law of this Commonwealth, the qualified voters of Representa- 
tive District Number , in their several meetings on the 
da}- of November instant, for the choice of Representatives in the 
General Court, did elect , being inhabitants of said 

district, to represent them in the General Court, to be holden on 
the first Wednesday of January next. 

Dated at the day of in the year one 

thousand eight hundred and 

There shall be printed on every such form the first four 
sections of chapter two of the Public Statutes, and this 
section and § 217 of ch. 417 of the acts of 1893. Every con- 
stable or other officer transmitting such certificate shall 
make a return to the officers from whom the same was 
received, stating that such certificate was duly delivered 
to the person mentioned therein as elected, and his return 
so made shall be filed with the city or town clerk. Sts. 
1893, ch. 417, §§ 197, 198. 

§ 288. The town clerk of every town shall, within fifteen 
days after the day of an election therein for representative 
in the general court, transmit to the secretary of the Com- 
monwealth an attested copy of the record of votes cast for 
all candidates for said office in each voting precinct and in 
each town not divided into voting precincts. In all records 
of votes cast at elections, and in all copies of such records, 
the whole number of ballots given shall be distinctly stated 
in words at length, but an omission so to state the whole 
number of ballots given shall not render a record or copy 
thereof invalid in any case in which the true result of the 
election can be ascertained from other parts of the record 
or copy, or by a recount made in conformity with the pro- 
visions of law. The town clerk of every town shall, within 
fifteen days after the day of an election therein of state or 
town officers, certify to the secretary of the Commonwealth 
the total number of names of male and of female voters 
checked on the voting list as having voted at such election 
in each voting precinct in such town. Sts. 1893, ch. 417, 
§§ 199, 200, 203. 



104 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

§ 289. The selectmen of a town may make such regula- 
tions not inconsistent with the provisions of this act, in 
regard to the manner of counting and returning the votes 
as they may deem expedient. Sts. 1893, ch. 417, § 205. 

(f) Recounts of Votes. 

§ 290. If, within the thirty days next succeeding the day 
of an election in a town, a person who has received votes for 
any office at such election, shall, by himself or by his agent 
or attorney, serve upon the clerk of such town a statement 
in writing claiming an election to such office, or declaring 
an intention to contest the election thereto of any other 
person, such clerk shall retain every envelope containing the 
ballots for such office cast at the election, sealed as provided 
by law, until such claim is withdrawn or the contest for the 
election is finally determined by the competent authority. 
Every envelope with the ballots shall, however, be and 
remain subject to the order of the body to which any such 
person claims or may be held to have been elected, or to the 
order of the officers required by law finally to examine the 
records or copies of the records and to issue certificates of 
election to such office, or to the order of a court having 
jurisdiction of the matter. Any such body or officers may 
order the clerk to appear before them and bring with him 
every such envelope with the ballots. The clerk shall, in 
response to the order, appear with the envelopes and ballots, 
and such body or officers may open the envelopes, recount 
the ballots therein, and amend any record or copy thereof 
made by them in relation to such office in accordance with 
the result of the recount. 

§ 291. If within the six days next succeeding the day of 
an election for state officers in a town, ten'or more qualified 
voters of any voting precinct of a town, or of any town not 
divided into voting precincts, shall file with the town clerk 
a statement in writing that they have reason to believe that 
the records or copies of records made by the election officers 
of certain precincts in such ward or town, or of such town, 
are erroneous, and shall specify wherein they deem them in 
error, the clerk shall forthwith transmit such statement to 



ELECTIONS AND TOWN MEETINGS. 105 

the selectmen, whose duty it is to examine the records or 
certificates of such election. The selectmen shall thereupon 
and within the eight days next succeeding the day of elec- 
tion, open the envelope or envelopes containing the ballots, 
and examine the ballots cast in each such voting precinct 
or town, as the case may be, and shall determine the ques- 
tions raised. After making such examination and determi- 
nation, the selectmen shall again enclose all ballots in their 
proper envelope, seal each envelope with the seal of the town, 
or with a seal provided for the purpose, and certify upon each 
envelope that the same has been opened and again sealed in 
conformity to law ; and they shall likewise make and sign 
a statement of their determination of the questions raised. 
The envelopes, together with such statement, shall be re- 
turned to the town clerk, and he shall alter and amend 
such records as have been found to be erroneous, in accord- 
ance with such determination ; and the records so amended 
shall stand as the true records of the election. The town 
clerk shall likewise, in accordance therewith, amend the 
records of the town, and copies of such amended records of 
the votes cast at a state election shall be made and trans- 
mitted, as are required by the provisions of this title in the 
case of original copies of records. 

In the case however of an election to till a vacancy in the 
office of a senator or representative in the general court, any 
such statement of ten qualified voters of their belief that 
errors exist, shall be filed within the two days next succeed- 
ing the day of election, and the examination of ballots shall 
be made within the three days next succeeding the day of 
election. Sts. 1893, ch. 417, §§ 206, 207. 

§ 292. If, within the two days next succeeding the day 
on which the declaration is made of the result of the vote 
in a town upon the question of granting licenses for the sale 
of intoxicating liquors therein, ten or more qualified voters 
in such town shall file with the town clerk a written state- 
ment that they have reason to believe that an error was made 
in ascertaining or declaring the result of the count of the 
ballots cast upon said question, the clerk shall forthwith 
transmit such statement to the moderator of the meeting. 



106 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

The moderator shall thereupon and within the three days 
next succeeding the day of such declaration, publicly recount 
such ballots and declare the result of such vote. If the 
recount does not agree with the original count, the modera- 
tor shall forthwith make and sign a certificate of the result 
of such recount, and file the same with the town clerk. 
The town clerk shall record the certificate in his book of 
records of town meetings, directly following his record of 
the meeting at which such ballots were cast ; and the record 
of the recount shall stand as the true result of the vote cast 
in such town upon said question. 

§ 293. The selectmen and the moderator of a town meet- 
ing in any town may appoint tellers, in accordance with the 
provisions stated in § 224 ante, to assist them or him, as 
the case may be, in making a recount of ballots under the 
provisions of the preceding sections. 

§ 294. No election officer or other officer whose duty it 
is to recount ballots cast at an election, shall, except as 
required by law, make any statement or give any infor- 
mation in regard to a ballot deposited by a challenged voter 
at such election. Sts. 1893, ch. 417, §§ 211-213. 

OFFICERS TO BE VOTED FOR AT STATE ELECTIONS. 

§ 295. At the annual state election in each year there 
shall be chosen, as prescribed by the constitution, by the 
voters of the entire Commonwealth, a governor, lieutenant- 
governor, secretary, treasurer and receiver general, auditor, 
and attorney-general ; by the voters in each councillor dis- 
trict, one councillor; by the voters in each senatorial dis- 
trict, one senator ; and by the voters in each representative 
district, such number of representatives as the district is by 
law entitled to elect. At the annual state election in each 
year in which by the laws of the United States electors of 
president and vice-president are required to be appointed, 
there shall be chosen, by the voters of the entire Common- 
wealth, a number of electors of president and vice-president 
equal to the whole number of senators and representatives 
to which the Commonwealth is entitled in congress. Sts. 
1893, ch. 41T, §§ 247, 248. 



ELECTIONS AND TOWN MEETINGS. 107 

§ 296. At the annual state election in the year eighteen 
hundred and ninety -four, and in every second year there- 
after, there shall be chosen by the voters in each congres- 
sional district of the Commonwealth a representative in the 
congress of the United States. 

§ 297. At the annual state election in the year eighteen 
hundred and ninety-five, and in every third year thereafter, 
there shall be chosen by the voters in each of the districts 
into which the Commonwealth is divided for the adminis- 
tration of the criminal law, a district attorney, who shall 
be a resident within the district for which he is chosen. 

§ 298. At the annual state election in the year eighteen 
hundred and ninety-six, and in every fifth year thereafter, 
there shall be chosen by the voters in the county of Suffolk, 
a clerk of the supreme judicial court for said county, and 
two clerks of the superior court for said county, one for the 
civil business and one for criminal business; and by the 
voters in each of the other counties, there shall be chosen 
a clerk of the courts for the county, who shall act as clerk 
of the supreme judicial court, of the superior court, and of 
the county commissioners. 

§ 299. At the annual state election in the year eighteen 
hundred and ninety-three, and in every fifth year thereafter, 
there shall be chosen by the voters of each county a register 
of probate and insolvency for the county. 

§ 300. At the annual state election in the year eighteen 
hundred and ninety -four, and in every third year thereafter, 
there shall be chosen by the voters of each district for the 
registry of deeds, and of each county not divided into dis- 
tricts for such purpose, a register of deeds for such district 
or county, who shall be a resident within the district or 
county for which he is chosen. 

§ 301. At the annual state election in the year eighteen 
hundred and ninety-five, and in every third year thereafter, 
there shall be chosen by the voters of the county of Worcester 
four commissioners of insolvency, and by the voters of each 
of the other counties three commissioners of insolvency. 

§ 302. At the annual state election in each year there 
shall be chosen by the voters of the county of Middlesex and 



108 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

of the city of Chelsea and the towns of Revere and Winthrop, 
one county commissioner for said county, city and towns, 
and by the voters of each of the other counties, except the 
counties of Suffolk and Nantucket, one county commissioner 
for the county. 

At the annual state election in the year eighteen hundred 
and ninety-five, and in every third year thereafter, there 
shall likewise be chosen by the voters of the county of 
Middlesex and of the city of Chelsea and the towns of 
Revere and Winthrop, two special commissioners for said 
county, city and towns, and by the voters of each of the 
other counties, except the counties of Suffolk and Nantucket, 
two special commissioners for the county. 

Not more than one of the county commissioners and 
special commissioners shall be chosen from the same town. 

There shall be three county commissioners in each county, 
except the counties of Suffolk and Nantucket. 

§ 303. At the annual state election in the year eighteen 
hundred and ninety -five, and in every third year thereafter, 
there shall be chosen by the voters in each county a sheriff 
for the county. 

§ 304. At the annual state election in the year eighteen 
hundred and ninety-four, and in every third year thereafter, 
there shall be chosen by the voters in each county, except 
the counties of Suffolk and of Nantucket, a county treasurer, 
who shall be a resident within the county for which he is 
chosen. Sts. 1893, ch. 417, §§ 249-25T. 

§ 305. If. there is a failure so to choose a register of 
deeds in the county of Nantucket, or if a vacancy shall 
occur in that office in said county, the selectmen of the 
town of Nantucket shall call a meeting for the election of 
a register of deeds or for the filling of such vacancy, as the 
case may be; and in case of a vacancy occurring in that 
office in said county of Nantucket, the selectmen shall 
appoint some person to fill the office until a person is duly 
elected to the office and qualified. 

§ 306. When elections are held in consequence of a 
failure to elect in a preceding election or to fill vacancies 
in any office, in accordance with the provisions of the pre- 



ELECTIONS AND TOWN MEETINGS. 109 

ceding sections of this title, proceedings shall be had 
similar in all respects, so far as applicable, to those had 
in elections to the same office at the annual state election. 
Sts. 1893, ch. 417, §§ 219, 222. 

ELECTION OF TOWN OFFICERS. 

§ 307. Every town at its annual meeting shall in every 
year, except as is otherwise stated in §§ 308, 309, 310, 313, 
and 318 post, choose from the inhabitants thereof the fol- 
lowing-named town officers who shall, unless so otherwise 
provided, serve during the year : — 

A town clerk ; 

Three, five, seven, or nine selectmen ; 

Three or more assessors ; and, if the town shall vote so to 
do, three or more assistant assessors ; 

Three or more overseers of the poor ; 

A town treasurer, whom the town may at any meeting 
appoint collector of taxes; 

One or more collectors of taxes, if the town shall vote so 
to do; 

One or more auditors ; 

One or more surveyors of highways ; 

A road commissioner, if the town has provided for the 
election of road commissioners; 

A sewer commissioner, if the town has provided for the 
election of sewer commissioners; 

One or more constables, who shall also be collectors of 
taxes, unless other persons are specially chosen or appointed 
collectors of taxes ; 

Two or more field-drivers ; 

Two or more fence-viewers ; 
and all other usual town officers. 

The town shall likewise at its annual meeting or at a 
meeting held in the same month in which the annual 
meeting occurs, choose members of the school committee, 
in accordance with the provisions of law; and the town 
shall at the annual meeting choose such other officers as are 
then required by law to be chosen. 



110 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

In the choice of overseers of the poor no person shall be 
ineligible for the office by reason of sex ; 

An auditor shall hold no other office. Sts. 1893, ch. 417, 
§ 266. 

A selectman and assessor of taxes may be chosen collector 
of taxes also. A collector of taxes may be sworn at any 
time before entering upon the duties of his office; and his 
oath need not be matter of record, but may be proved by 
other evidence. A town record of the election of a collector 
of taxes need not show a determination by the town of the 
manner in which he should be chosen. Howard v. Proctor, 
7 Gray, 128. 

§ 308. A town which, previous to the passage of this act, 
has accepted the provisions of any statute authorizing the 
election of its selectmen in substantially the following 
manner, or which shall hereafter, at an annual meeting or 
at a meeting held in accordance with the provisions stated 
in § 338 post, accept the provisions stated in this section, 
and which has not or shall not have revoked such acceptance, 
shall elect its selectmen in the following manner : — 

If the number of selectmen is fixed by the town to be 
three, the town shall at the annual meeting, when such 
acceptance is voted, or at the annual meeting next suc- 
ceeding the meeting at which such acceptance is voted, 
elect one selectman for the term of one year, one selectman 
for the term of two years, and one selectman for the term of 
three years; and at each annual meeting thereafter shall 
elect one selectman for the term of three years. If the 
number of selectmen is required to be five, the town shall 
at such annual meeting elect one selectman for the term of 
one year, two selectmen for terms of two years, and two 
selectmen for terms of three years ; and at the annual meet- 
ing in each year thereafter, it shall elect one or two select- 
men to serve for terms of three years accordingly as the 
term of office of one or two expires in the year. If the 
number of selectmen is required to be seven, the town shall 
at such annual meeting elect two selectmen for terms of 
one year, two selectmen for terms of two years, and three 
selectmen for terms of three years ; and at the annual meet- 



ELECTIONS AND TOWN MEETINGS. Ill 

ing in each year thereafter, it shall elect two or three select- 
men to serve for terms of three years accordingly as the term 
of office of two or three expires in the year. If the number 
of selectmen is required to be nine, the town shall at such 
annual meeting elect three selectmen for terms of one year, 
three selectmen for terms of two years, and three selectmen 
for terms of three years ; and at the annual meeting in each 
year thereafter it shall elect three selectmen to serve for 
terms of three years. 

§ 309. A town which, previous to the passage of this act, 
has accepted the provisions of any statute authorizing the 
election of its assessors in substantially the following man- 
ner, or which shall hereafter, at an annual meeting or at a 
meeting held in accordance with the provisions stated in 
§ 338 post, accept the provisions stated in this section, and 
which has not or shall not have revoked such acceptance, 
shall elect its assessors in the following manner : — 

If the number of assessors is fixed by the town to be three, 
the town shall at the annual meeting when such acceptance 
is voted, or at the annual meeting next succeeding the 
meeting at which such acceptance is voted, elect one assessor 
for the term of one year, one assessor for the term of two 
years, and one assessor for the term of three years; and at 
each annual meeting thereafter it shall elect one assessor 
for the term of three years. If the number of assessors is 
required to be five, the town shall at such annual meeting 
elect one assessor for the term of one year, two assessors for 
terms of two years, and two assessors for terms of three 
years; and at the annual meeting in each year thereafter 
it shall elect one or two assessors to serve for terms of three 
years accordingly as the term of office of one or two expires 
in the year. If the number of assessors is required to be 
seven, the town shall at such annual meeting elect two 
assessors for terms of one year, two assessors for terms of 
two years, and three assessors for terms of three years ; and 
at the annual meeting in each year thereafter it shall elect 
two or three assessors to serve for terms of three years 
accordingly as the term of office of two or three expires in 
the year. If the number of assessors is required to be nine, 



112 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

the town shall at such annual meeting elect three assessors 
for terms of one year, three assessors for terms of two years, 
and three assessors for terms of three years; and at the 
annual meeting in each year thereafter it shall elect three 
assessors to serve for terms of three years. If the number 
of assessors is required to be four, the town shall at such 
annual meeting elect two assessors for terms of one year, 
and two assessors for terms of two years ; and at the annual 
meeting in each year thereafter it shall elect two assessors 
to serve for terms of two years. 

§ 310. A town which, previous to the passage of this act, 
has accepted the provisions of any statute authorizing the 
election of its overseers of the poor in substantially the 
following manner, or which shall hereafter at an annual 
meeting or at a meeting held in accordance with the pro- 
visions stated in § 338 post, accept the provisions stated in 
this section, and which has not or shall not have revoked 
such acceptance, shall elect its overseers of the poor in the 
following manner : — 

If the number of overseers of the poor is fixed by the town 
to be three, the town shall at the annual meeting when such 
acceptance is voted, or at the annual meeting next succeed- 
ing the meeting at which such acceptance is voted, elect one 
overseer of the poor for the term of one year, one overseer of 
the poor for the term of two years, and one overseer of the 
poor for the term of three years ; and at each annual meeting 
thereafter it shall elect one overseer of the poor for the term 
of three years. If the number of overseers of the poor is 
required to be five, the town shall at such annual meeting 
elect one overseer of the poor for the term of one year, two 
overseers of the poor for terms of two years, and two over- 
seers of the poor for terms of three years.; and at the annual 
meeting in each year thereafter it shall elect one or two 
overseers of the poor to serve for terms of three years accord- 
ingly as the term of office of one or two expires in the year. 
If the number of overseers of the poor is required to be seven, 
the town shall at such annual meeting elect two overseers of 
the poor for terms of one year, two overseers of the poor for 
terms of two years, and three overseers of the poor for terms 



ELECTIONS AND TOWN MEETINGS. 113 

of three years ; and at the annual meeting in each year 
thereafter it shall elect two or three overseers of the poor 
to serve for terms of three years accordingly as the term 
of office of two or three expires in the year. If the number 
of overseers of the poor is required to be nine, the town 
shall at such annual meeting elect three overseers of the 
poor for terms of one year, three overseers of the poor for 
terms of two years, and three overseers of the poor for terms 
of three years; and at the annual meeting in each year 
thereafter it shall elect three overseers of the poor to serve 
for terms of three years. 

§ 311. A town which votes at an annual meeting to 
increase or diminish the number of its selectmen, assessors, 
or overseers of the poor, may at that meeting or at any 
annual meeting thereafter elect one or more of such officers 
additional, or omit to elect one or more of such officers, so 
as to bring the number to the limit fixed by the vote of the 
town, with terms of office expiring in the manner provided 
in the preceding three sections; but no action shall be 
taken so as to prevent the election of at least one selectman, 
assessor, and overseer in every year. 

A town which has by vote accepted the provisions of any 
of the preceding three sections or of any statute therein 
referred to, may at any subsequent annual meeting revoke 
such acceptance, and thereupon the provisions of any such 
section or statute so accepted shall cease to be operative in 
such town, except that such revocation shall not affect the 
term of office of any selectman, assessor, or overseer chosen 
thereunder. Sts. 1893, ch. 417, §§ 267-2T0. 

§ 312. Members of a board of overseers of the poor of a 
town, when elected for terms of more than one year, shall, 
within seven days after the annual town meeting, meet and 
choose a chairman, and also a secretary, who may be chosen 
from their own number or may be some person other than a 
member of the board. 

They shall cause books to be kept, wherein shall be entered 
in a neat and methodical style, and so arranged as to be 
readily referred to upon such books, the information required 
by law in regard to all needy persons aided under their direc- 

8 



114 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

tion, and all further information as to every case of relief 
' given, asked for, or refused, the preservation of which may 
be of importance to the town or to the Commonwealth, 
stating the amount and kind of aid given, and the reasons 
for giving such aid or for refusing the same. Sts. 1893, 
ch. 423, § 12. 

§ 313. A town which, previous to the passage of this act, 
has accepted the provisions of any statute permitting the 
election of road commissioners, or which shall hereafter, at 
an annual meeting or at any meeting held in accordance 
with the provisions which will be found stated in § 338 post, 
accept the provisions stated in this section, and which has 
not or shall not have revoked such acceptance, shall elect 
road commissioners in the following manner: — 

The town shall, at the annual meeting when such accept- 
ance is voted, or at the next annual meeting after such 
acceptance is voted, elect one commissioner for the term of 
one year, one commissioner for the term of two years, and 
one commissioner for the term of three years ; and at each 
annual meeting thereafter it shall elect one road commis- 
sioner for the term of three years. 

A town which has by vote accepted the provisions of this 
section or of any statute herein referred to, may at a subse- 
quent annual meeting revoke such acceptance, and thereupon 
the provisions of this section or any statute so accepted shall 
cease to be operative in such town, and the offices of road 
commissioners shall be taken to be abolished. Sts. 1893, 
ch. 417, § 271. 

§ 314. Road commissioners, when chosen in towns, shall, 
in matters concerning streets, ways, bridges, monuments at 
the terminations and angles of roads, guide-posts, sidewalks, 
and shade-trees, and, if sewer commissioners are not chosen, 
in matters of sewers and drains, exclusively have the powers 
and be subject to the duties, liabilities and penalties of 
selectmen and surveyors of highways, and shall have all the 
powers and privileges conferred upon selectmen in section 
seventeen of chapter fifty-three of the Public Statutes in 
relation to moving buildings in public streets and highways. 
Sts. 1893, ch. 423, § 23. 



ELECTIONS AND TOWN MEETINGS. 115 

§ 315. In a town which shall not choose road commis- 
sioners in accordance with the provisions of law, the select- 
men shall, as soon after the annual town meeting as may be, 
appoint a suitable person to be a superintendent of streets. 
The superintendent of streets shall be sworn to the faithful' 
discharge of his duties, shall receive such compensation for 
his services as the town or selectmen may determine, and 
shall hold office until the next annual town meeting and 
until his successor is appointed and qualified, unless the 
provisions of law for the appointment of road commissioners 
shall have ceased to be operative in such town. 

The superintendent of streets may be removed from office 
by the selectmen when in their judgment the best interests 
of the town so require. 

When a vacancy in the office of superintendent of streets 
shall occur by removal, or by resignation or otherwise, the 
selectmen shall appoint a suitable person to fill the vacancy, 
who shall hold office until the next annual town meeting, 
and until his successor is appointed and qualified, except 
as above provided. 

§ 316. The superintendent of streets in a town shall, 
under the direction of the selectmen, have full charge of all 
repairs and labor required of towns upon streets, ways, 
bridges, and sidewalks, and the care and preservation of 
shade-trees ; and, also, in towns when no other provision is 
made, he shall have full charge of all repairs required of 
towns upon sewers and drains, and in relation to all such mat- 
ters he shall have the same powers and be subject to the same 
duties, liabilities, and penalties which have been imposed 
upon surveyors of highways and road commissioners. Sts. 
1893, ch. 423, §§ 25, 26. * 

§ 317. The auditors of towns shall examine the books 
and accounts of all officers and committees of their respec- 
tive towns intrusted with the receipt, custody, or expenditure 
of money, and all original bills and vouchers on which 
moneys have been or may be paid from the treasuries of 
their respective towns. They shall have free access to such 
books, accounts, bills, and vouchers, as often as once a 
month, and may make examination thereof, and they shall 



116 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

examine the same at least once in each year, and shall 
annually report in writing to their respective towns as to 
the correctness of all such books, accounts, bills, and 
vouchers. Sts. 1893, ch. 423, § 20. 

§ 318. A town which shall hereafter at an annual meet- 
ing or at any meeting held in accordance with the provisions 
stated in § 338 post, accept the provisions stated in this section, 
and which has not or shall not have revoked such acceptance, 
shall elect sewer commissioners in the following manner : 

The town shall, at the annual meeting when such accept- 
ance is voted, or at the next annual meeting after such 
acceptance is voted, elect one sewer commissioner for the 
term of one year, one sewer commissioner for the term of 
two years, and one sewer commissioner for the term of 
three years ; and at each annual meeting thereafter it shall 
elect one sewer commissioner for the term of three years. 

A town which has by vote accepted the provisions of this 
section, may at a subsequent annual meeting revoke such 
acceptance, and thereupon the provisions of this section 
shall cease to be operative in such town, and the offices of 
sewer commissioners shall be taken to be abolished. Sts. 
1893, ch. 417, § 272. 

§ 319. Sewer commissioners, when chosen in towns, shall, 
in matters concerning sewers and drains, exclusively have 
the powers and be subject to the duties, liabilities, and pen- 
alties of selectmen and road commissioners. Sts. 1893, 
ch. 423, § 24. 

§ 320. There shall be in each town of five thousand 
inhabitants or more, and in each town having a system of 
water supply or sewerage, a board of examiners of plumbers, 
consisting of the chairman of the board of health and, in 
towns having an inspector of buildings^ the inspector of 
buildings of said town, who shall be members ex officio of 
said board, and serve without compensation, and a third 
member, who shall be a practical plumber. Said third 
member shall be appointed by the board of health of said 
town within three months from the passage of this act 
(June 10, 1893), for the term of one year from the first day 
of May in the year of appointment, and thereafter annually 



ELECTIONS AND TOWN MEETINGS. 117 

before the first day of June, and shall be allowed a sum not 
exceeding five dollars for each day of actual service, to be 
paid from the treasury of such town : provided, that if in 
any town there is no inspector of buildings, said board of 
health shall appoint a second member of said board of 
examiners who shall be a practical plumber, and whose term 
of office and compensation shall be the same as is heretofore 
provided for said third member. Sts. 1893, ch. 477, § 3. 

§ 321. The selectmen may at any time appoint police 
officers with any or all of the powers of constables, except 
the power of serving and executing civil process. Such 
police officers shall hold office during the pleasure of the 
selectmen ; and they may, when on duty, carry such weapons 
as the selectmen shall authorize. Sts. 1893, ch. 423, § 7. 

An appointment " to superintend the police of the town " 
is sufficient to give the person appointed all the power con- 
ferred by this section. Commonwealth v. Martin, 98 Mass. 
4; also an appointment "on police duty," and the officer 
need not be sworn. Commonwealth v. Cushing, 99 Mass. 592. 
An appointment of a police officer by the selectmen of a 
town, "to continue in said office till the next annual town 
meeting, " is a valid appointment during their pleasure. 
Commonwealth v. Ifiggins, 4 Gray, 34. Police officers may 
be assigned to agricultural and horticultural exhibitions. 
Sts. 1892, ch. 180. 

§ 322. The selectmen, on the receipt and approval of the 
bond of a collector of taxes or treasurer, shall give notice 
of such receipt and approval to the assessors. Sts. 1893, 
ch. 423, § 8. 

§ 323. The election of town clerk, selectmen, assessors, 
overseers of the poor, town treasurer, auditor, collector of 
taxes, constables, road commissioners, sewer commissioners, 
and school committee shall be by ballot ; and the election of 
all other town officers shall be in such manner as the town 
may determine, unless in any case it shall be otherwise 
provided by law. A town which chooses its assessors or 
overseers of the poor for terms of one year, may however,, 
instead of electing assessors or overseers of the poor by 
ballot, provide by vote, previous to making choice of such 



11$ THE TOWN OFFICER. 

officers, that the persons to be elected selectmen shall act 
also as assessors or as overseers of the poor, or in both such 
capacities. Such vote shall in any town, in which ballots 
are provided at the expense of the town, be passed at a 
meeting held thirty days at least previous to the annual 
meeting at which the selectmen are so to be chosen. The 
voting list shall be used, and the name of every person voting 
shall be checked thereon, in the election of all town officers, 
whose election is by law required to be by ballot, and in 
taking the vote upon the question of granting licenses for 
the sale of intoxicating liquors in the town; but in the 
election of other town officers the voting list shall or shall 
not be so used, as the meeting shall by vote determine. 
Sts. 1893, ch. 417, §§ 274, 275. 

§ 324. Whenever the town clerk, selectmen, assessors, 
treasurer, collector of taxes, and school committee are voted 
for in a town on one ballot, the moderator of the town meet- 
ing shall cause all the ballots cast for such officers, after 
they have been duly canvassed and counted, and record 
thereof has been made, publicly to be enclosed in envelopes, 
and the envelopes to be sealed and endorsed, and certificate 
to be made thereon, in the same manner as is required by 
the provisions stated in § 276 ante, in the case of elections 
of town officers for which ballots are provided at the expense 
of the town. 

If, within the two days next succeeding the day of an 
election in which all of said officers are voted for on one 
ballot, as aforesaid, ten or more qualified voters of the town 
shall file with the town clerk a statement in writing, that 
they have reason to believe that an error was made in ascer- 
taining or declaring the result of such election, as is stated 
in § 355 post, the moderator shall open "the envelopes con- 
taining the ballots cast, and determine the questions raised 
in such statement; and in case it shall appear that a person 
was elected other than the person declared in town meeting 
to have been elected, the moderator shall make and file a 
certificate of such fact, and the town clerk shall record the 
same and deliver copies thereof to the persons affected 
thereby, and all other proceedings shall be had the same 



ELECTIONS AND TOWN MEETINGS. 119 

as in the case in which a statement is filed under the pro- 
visions stated in said § 355. 

§ 325. A person elected town clerk of a town, if present 
at the meeting at which he is chosen, shall forthwith be 
sworn, either by the moderator or by a justice of the peace, 
and shall at once enter upon the discharge of his duties. 
Every other town officer designated hj name in § 307 ante, 
unless other provision is specifically made by law or other- 
wise, shall enter upon the discharge of his duties on the day 
succeeding his election or as soon thereafter as he is duly 
qualified, and his term of office shall be reckoned as begin- 
ning on the day succeeding the date fixed for the annual 
meeting in such town. Every such officer shall hold office 
during the term fixed by law, and until another person is 
chosen and qualified in his stead. 

§ 326. All the town officers designated by name in § 307 
ante, shall, before entering upon the performance of their 
duties, severally be sworn to the faithful discharge of their 
respective duties. Such oath may be administered by the 
moderator in open town meeting, or by the town clerk. The 
town clerk shall forthwith after the election or appointment 
of town officers, who are by law required to take an oath 
of office, make out a list containing the names of all persons 
chosen as such officers not sworn by him or by the moderator, 
and the designation of the office to which each is chosen, and 
shall deliver such list with his warrant to a constable requir- 
ing him within three days to summon each such person to 
appear and take the oath of office within seven days after the 
service of such notice ; and the constable shall within the 
seven days serve every such warrant in accordance with its 
requirements, and make return thereof to the town clerk. 
The person so chosen and summoned, unless exempt by law 
from holding the office to which he has been chosen, shall 
within the seven days, as so required, take the oath of office 
before the town clerk, or within that period take such oath 
before a justice of the peace, and file with the town clerk a 
certificate thereof under the hand of such justice. Sts. 1893, 
ch. 417, §§ 276-278. 

A constable duly chosen and sworn is qualified to act as 



120 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

collector of taxes, without any further oath, if another person 
duly chosen collector does not accept the office, although that 
person is not summoned in writing to accept the office, and 
his refusal to accept does not appear of record. Hayes v. 
Drake, 6 Gray, 387. 

§ 327. No person shall be obliged to serve two years suc- 
cessively in the same town office ; and no person shall be 
obliged to accept the office of constable who holds a commis- 
sion as an officer of the United States or of the Common- 
wealth, who is a member of the council, senate, or house of 
representatives of the Commonwealth, or who is a minister of 
the gospel, or who is an engineman, or a member of the fire 
department, or who has been a constable or collector of taxes 
in the town within seven years next preceding. No person 
shall be obliged to serve in the office of surveyor of highways 
oftener than once in three years. 

§ 328. The secretary of the Commonwealth shall send, 
seven days at least previous to the annual meeting, to the 
town clerk of each town which has not voted that ballots for 
town officers shall be provided at the expense of the town, 
in accordance with the provisions of this act, ballots both 
affirmative and negative for taking the vote upon the ques- 
tion of granting licenses for the sale of intoxicating liquors 
therein. Such ballots shall contain the words " Shall licenses 
be granted for the sale of intoxicating liquors in this town ? 
Yes. (or) No.", and no other words, and may be of such form 
and size as the secretary shall deem proper. Ballots of each 
kind shall be provided in number equal at least to the num- 
ber of registered voters in such town. The ballots so fur- 
nished shall be distributed to the voters at the polling place 
under the direction of the town clerk. Sts. 1893, ch. 417, 
§§ 279, 282. 

§ 329. Town officers must demand and receive from their 
predecessors under oath, their official records, papers, etc. 
Sts. 1891, ch. 340. 

(a) Failures to Elect and Vacancies. 

§ 330. If there is a failure at an election to choose a town 
officer, or if a person so chosen to a town office shall not accept 



ELECTIONS AND TOWN MEETINGS. 121 

such office, or a vacancy shall occur in a town office, the town 
may, except as otherwise stated in § 332 post, elect a person 
to such office or fill such vacancy at any legal meeting called 
and held in accordance with the provisions of this act. 

If at an election of town officers for which ballots are pro- 
vided at the expense of the town, there is a failure to elect a 
town officer, such officer may be elected at an adjourned or 
succeeding meeting; and for such meeting ballots shall be 
prepared and furnished, containing such nominations as have 
already been made and which subsequently may be duly made 
for the office, in accordance with the provisions of this act, 
for the making of nominations and the providing of ballots in 
town elections. Sts. 1893, ch. 417, § 284. 

§ 331. Every person chosen constable at a town meeting 
shall, if present, forthwith declare his acceptance or refusal of 
his office. If he does not accept the office, the town shall, 
in case the ballots are not provided at such election at the 
expense of the town in accordance with the provisions of this 
act, proceed to elect another person to the office, and continue 
so to elect until some person accepts the office and takes the 
oath therefor. 

§ 332. If the assessors of a town, or, in case there are no 
assessors, if the selectmen shall in any year fail to perform the 
duties of assessors, the county commissioners of the county 
in which such town is situated, may appoint three or more 
suitable persons, inhabitants of the county, to be assessors for 
such town. The persons so appointed shall be sworn to the 
faithful discharge of their duties, shall hold office for the re- 
mainder of the term of assessors, and shall have the powers, 
perform the duties, and receive the compensation of assessors 
for the town. Sts. 1893, ch. 417, §§ 286, 287. 

Where a town chose three assessors, two of whom were 
sworn, and the third did not refuse to accept the trust, but 
omitted to take the oath of office, and when called upon by 
the other two declined to act, and the town did not choose 
another in his stead, it was held that the other two had au- 
thority to assess a tax. " The court are of the opinion that, 
when three assessors are duly chosen by the town, there is a 
board of assessors. Each is an assessor. But until qualified 



122 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

by taking the oath, he is not legally competent to act. If a 
majority do qualify by taking the oath, and the third has not 
taken the oath, still, if he has notice of their proceeding to 
execute the office, and declines to take the oath and act with 
'them, their acts will be good, in the same manner as if he had 
taken the oath, and declined to act with them, because he is 
an assessor, and the office is full. He may at any time take 
the oath, and thus be a qualified assessor; unless he has 
legally expressed his non-acceptance, or unless the town, in 
consequence of his neglecting or declining to take the oath 
of office, has filled the vacancy by electing another in his 
place. But until the town has so done, the office is still full ; 
there is a board, and of these, by force of the statute as well 
as by long usage, the majority may act." Shaw, C. J., in 
George v. Mendon, 6 Met. 511. 

§ 333. Whenever the office of treasurer or collector of 
taxes is vacant, and whenever the treasurer or collector is 
prevented from performing the duties of his office, the select- 
men may by a writing under their hands appoint a treasurer 
or collector pro tempore, who shall be sworn and give bond in 
like manner as the treasurer or collector chosen by the town, 
and he shall hold such office until another is chosen by the 
town and qualified, or the disability of the treasurer or col- 
lector is removed. If a treasurer or collector shall for ten 
days after his election or appointment fail to give bond as 
required by law, the selectmen may declare the office vacant, 
and appoint another in his place as above provided. Sts. 1893, 
ch. 417, § 288. 

" The statute requiring the appointment of a collector pro 
tempore to be made by a writing under the hands of the select- 
men is not satisfied by a writing signed with the names of all 
by one selectman, in the absence of the 'others, and with no 
other authority than what is implied by their having agreed 
that the party should be appointed." Holmes, J., in Phelon 
v. Granville, 140 Mass. 386. 

§ 334. If the office of an auditor in a town shall become 
vacant, the remaining auditor or auditors, if any, may perform 
all duties of the office, and may appoint a person to aid in 
the performance thereof. If however there is no remaining 



ELECTIONS AND TOWN MEETINGS. 123 

auditor, the selectmen of the town shall appoint a person duly 
qualified to fill the office of auditor, until another is chosen 
by the town and qualified. Sts. 1893, ch. 417, § 289. 

§ 335. If from any cause there is a failure to elect or a 
vacancy occurs in any town office, other than the offices of 
selectman, town clerk, assessor, treasurer, collector of taxes, 
and auditor, the selectmen shall, by an appointment in writing 
signed by them, fill such vacancy, and the person so appointed 
shall perform the duties of such office until the next annual 
meeting or until another is chosen by the town and qualified 
in his stead ; except that, if such vacancy occurs in a board 
consisting of two or more officers, the remaining member or 
members of such board shall, in writing, give notice of the 
vacancy to the selectmen of the town, and thereupon the 
selectmen and such remaining member or members shall, 
after giving public notice of at least one week, proceed by 
ballot to fill such vacancy, and a majority of the ballots of the 
officers entitled to vote shall be necessary to such election ; 
and the person so elected shall perform the duties of the office 
until the next annual meeting or until another is chosen by 
the town and qualified in his stead. A person removing from 
a town in which he holds a town office shall thereby be taken 
to vacate such office. Sts. 1893, ch. 417, §§ 290, 291. 

§ 336. When an election is held in consequence of a fail- 
ure to elect in a preceding election, or to fill a vacancy in any 
town office, in accordance with the provisions of the preceding 
sections, proceedings shall be had similar in all respects, so 
far as applicable, to those had in an election to the same office 
at the annual meeting. The provisions as to the qualifications 
of a person for any such office, which are applicable in the 
case of an original election, shall apply to every person elected 
or appointed to fill a vacancy in such office ; and each person 
so elected or appointed shall perform the same duties and 
have and exercise all the powers and be subject to all the re- 
quirements and penalties which by law pertain to such office. 
Sts. 1893, ch. 417, § 292. 



124 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

(b) Ballots may he Provided at the Expense of the Town, 

§ 337. In towns which have accepted the provisions of 
chapter three hundred and eighty -six of the acts of the year 
eighteen hundred and ninety, and in towns which shall, after 
the passage of this act, at meetings duly called for the pur- 
pose, vote that ballots for town officers therein shall be pro- 
vided at the expense of the town, nominations for town officers 
to be elected by ballot shall be made, ballots and other appa- 
ratus therefor shall be prepared and furnished, and elections 
of all such officers shall be conducted in accordance with the 
provisions stated in the preceding sections, so far as the same 
shall be applicable thereto. 

A town which has so accepted the provisions of said chapter 
three hundred and eighty -six, or has so voted that ballots be 
provided at the expense of the town, may however at any 
annual town meeting or other meeting called for the purpose 
and held thirty days at least before the annual town meeting, 
upon notice duly given in the warrant therefor, revoke such 
action by the affirmative vote of two thirds of the voters pres- 
ent and voting thereon ; and after a meeting at which such 
acceptance or vote has been revoked, town elections shall be 
held in such town and all things shall be done in the election 
of town officers as if said chapter had not been accepted or 
the town had not so voted that ballots be provided at the ex- 
pense of the town. 

§ 338. Whenever a town, in accordance with the provi- 
sions of the preceding section, shall vote that ballots for the 
election of town officers therein shall be provided at the ex- 
pense of the town, the town shall at the same meeting deter- 
mine what town officers, if any, not already required by law 
to be chosen by ballot, shall thereafter be so chosen, and also, 
if in any case the number of officers such as are to be chosen 
by ballot or their terms of office are not already fixed by law, 
shall determine such number and terms ; and for the purpose 
of such determination, the town may at such meeting accept 
the provisions of any section of this act, changing the manner 
of election and terms of office of any such town officers. No 
new acceptance of any previous statute or of any such section 



ELECTIONS AND TOWN MEETINGS. 125 

of this act shall be required in any case in which an accept- 
ance has already been made and not revoked ; but all such 
matters, in order to be acted upon, shall be notified in the 
warrant for such meeting. No change shall thereafter be 
made in the officers to be chosen by ballot or in the number 
or terms of office thereof, except at a meeting held thirty days 
at least before the annual meeting at which such change is to 
become operative. Sts. 1893, ch. 417, §§ 293, 294. 

TOWN MEETINGS. 

§ 339. The annual meeting of each town shall be held in 
February, March, or April ; and other meetings may be held 
at such times as the selectmen may order. Meetings may be 
adjourned from time to time, and to any place within the town. 

§ 340. Every meeting in a town for the election of state 
officers, and every other town meeting, except as hereinafter 
provided, shall be held in pursuance of a warrant, under the 
hands of the selectmen, directed to the constables or to some 
other persons appointed by the selectmen for the purpose, 
who shall forthwith notify such meeting in the manner pre- 
scribed by the by-laws, or, if there are no by-laws, by a vote 
of the town. The warrant shall express the time and place 
of the meeting and the subjects to be there acted upon, and 
the selectmen shall insert in the warrant all subjects which 
may, in writing, be requested of them by any ten or more 
voters of the town. Nothing acted upon at such meeting shall 
have a legal operation unless the subject-matter thereof is 
contained in the warrant. The selectmen may by the same 
warrant call two or more distinct town meetings for distinct 
purposes. Sts. 1893, ch. 417, §§ 259, 260. 

The warrant must be signed by a majority of the selectmen, 
otherwise the meeting will not be legal. Reynolds v. New 
Salem, 6 Met. 340. 

As to the manner of notifying meetings, the time that shall 
elapse between the notification of the meeting and the hold- 
ing of the same must, of course, be a reasonable one. In the 
absence "of any vote of the town on the subject, usage would 
aid in deciding the legality of the notice. If there had been 
an entirely uniform practice of notifying a certain number of 



126 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

days before the meeting, for a considerable length of time, 
and such meetings thus called had been sanctioned by the 
silent acquiescence of the inhabitants, and their adoption of 
the meetings, etc., as properly called by transacting at them 
their ordinary business, a meeting so called would be reason- 
ably notified in point of time ; and also where no vote of 
the town exists as to the time of posting up notice, and such 
notice is posted up seven days before the meeting, and in 
proper places and manner in every other respect, and due 
return of the service of such warrant made by the constable, 
the votes passed at such meeting are not to be held invalid 
upon the ground that the meeting was not legally notified. 
The period of seven days seems a reasonable period. It is 
that prescribed by the constitution for meetings for choice of 
senators, ch. 1, § 2. It is that prescribed for the first meet- 
ing of corporations. Rand v. Wilder, 11 Cush. 296. 

If there are proper warrants seasonably issued, with a re- 
turn of the officer upon each of them saying that he notified 
and warned the inhabitants pursuant to the warrant, even if 
it does not distinctly appear by the returns that the postings 
were as long as they should have been before the respective 
meetings, the meetings will be considered to be legally warned. 
Com. v. Broivn, 147 Mass. 585, at p. 592. 

" While a town is limited in the transaction of business by 
the articles in the warrant, yet a liberal construction has 
always been given to their language, so as to include all that 
is properly, even if incidentally, embraced in the subject to 
which they relate." Devens, J., in Com. v. Wentivorth, 145 
Mass. 50, at p. 52. 

It is sufficient if the warrant gives intelligible notice of the 
subjects to be acted upon. An article in the warrant " to 
hear the report of any committee heretofore chosen, and pass 
any vote in relation to the same," is a form of notice for ac- 
tion on reports of committees of common use and sanctioned 
by authority, and it is sufficient to enable the town to grant 
money upon it, if the subject is one that is likely to require 
money. Whenever practicable, however, a more definite speci- 
fication of the committee of the objects to be voted on would 
be better. Fuller v. G-roton, 11 Gray, 340. 



ELECTIONS AND TOWN MEETINGS. 127 

Under an article in the warrant " to elect town officers for 
the ensuing year," the town may invest such officers with any 
special authority in the discharge of their duties which it is 
authorized by statute to confer upon its officers. Sherman v. 
Torrey, 99 Mass. 472. 

And an article " to raise such sums of money as may be 
necessary to defray town charges for the ensuing year," is 
sufficient to authorize a vote to raise money for specified town 
purposes. Westhampton v. Searle, 127 Mass. 502. 

A town was authorized by statute to purchase a water com- 
pany at a two-thirds vote at a meeting called for that pur- 
pose. At such a meeting under an article in the warrant " to 
see if the town will vote to purchase the same," the requisite 
vote was in the affirmative, but at a subsequent meeting the 
vote was rescinded. Held, that the vote to purchase com- 
pleted a contract from which the town could not withdraw. 
Braintree Water Supply Co. v. Braintree, 146 Mass. 482. 

§ 341. If by reason of death, resignation, or removal from 
a town, a majority of the selectmen shall vacate their offices, 
or if the full number shall fail to be elected or omit to be 
qualified according to law, the selectmen or selectman remain- 
ing or being in office may call a town meeting. 

§ 342. If the selectmen unreasonably refuse to call a town 
meeting, a justice of the peace, upon the application of ten or 
more legal voters of the town, may call such meeting by a 
warrant under his hand directed to the constables of the town, 
if there are any, or, if there is no constable, then to any of the 
persons applying therefor, directing them to summon the in- 
habitants, qualified to vote in town affairs, to assemble at the 
time and place and for the purposes expressed in the warrant. 
Sts. 1893, ch. 417, §§ 261, 262. 



128 THE TOWN OFFICER. 



CHAPTER III. 

MODERATORS AND THEIR DUTIES. 

§ 343. At every town meeting, except for the election of 
state officers, a moderator shall first be chosen. 

§ 344. During the election of a moderator the town clerk 
if present shall preside ; if he is absent or if there is no town 
clerk the selectmen shall preside ; if neither the selectmen nor 
the town clerk are present the justice of the peace calling said 
meeting shall preside ; and the town clerk and selectmen and 
said justice of the peace when so presiding shall have the 
powers and perform the duties of a moderator. Sts. 1893, 
ch. 417, § 263. 

§ 345. In the election of town officers, whose election is 
not required by statute to be by ballot, the check-list shall be 
used or not as the town at its meeting shall determine ; except 
that the check-list shall be used in the election of moderators 
of town-meetings held for the choice of town officers. Sts. 
1893, ch. 417, §§ 273, 275. 

The record of a town meeting showed that a moderator was 
chosen with the use of the check-list ; that a vote was then 
passed that the check-list be used in the election of town offi- 
cers and upon the question of granting licenses, and no other, 
without a vote of at least one half the meeting; that the 
moderator resigned and that another person was elected 
moderator and acted as such. Held, that whether the record 
showed that this person was elected by ballot and by the use 
of the check-list or not, it sufficiently showed that he was a 
moderator de facto. Atty-G-en. v. Crocker, 138 Mass. 214. 

§ 346. The moderator shall preside in the meeting, may in 
open meeting administer the oaths of office to any town officer 
chosen thereat, shall regulate the business and proceedings of 
the meeting, decide all questions of order, and make public 
declaration of all votes passed. When a vote so declared by 



MODERATORS AND THEIR DUTIES. 129 

him is, immediately upon such declaration, questioned by seven 
or more of the voters present, he shall make the vote certain 
by polling the voters or by dividing the meeting, unless the 
town has by a previous vote or by its by-laws otherwise pro- 
vided. Sts. 1893, ch. 417, § 264. 

§ 347. No person shall speak in a town-meeting without 
leave of the moderator nor while another person is speaking 
by his permission ; and all persons shall at his request be 
silent. Sts. 1893, ch. 417, § 265. 

§ 348. If a person behaves in a disorderly manner and 
after notice from the moderator persists therein, the moderator 
may order him to withdraw from the meeting ; and on his 
refusal may order the constables or any other persons to take 
him from the meeting and confine him in some convenient 
place until the meeting is adjourned. The person so refusing 
to withdraw shall for such offence forfeit a sum not exceeding 
one hundred dollars. Sts. 1893, ch. 417, §§ 265, 340. 

§ 349. A moderator or other presiding officer who at a 
town-meeting, before the poll is closed and without the con- 
sent of the voter, with a view to ascertain the candidate voted 
for by him, reads, examines, or permits to be read or exam- 
ined the names written on such voter's ballot, shall forfeit not 
exceeding one hundred dollars. Sts. 1893, ch. 417, §§ 280, 302. 

§ 350. Moderators and town clerks when required to pre- 
side at town meetings may appoint tellers to aid them in 
checking the names of voters or in assorting and counting 
votes. Such tellers shall be sworn to the faithful discharge 
of their duties by the town clerk, who shall make a record of 
the taking of such oath. Every such teller shall be subject 
to the same penalties to which the officer so appointing him 
is subject in the performance of the duties in which such teller 
assists. 

§ 351. Tellers hereafter appointed in towns may be sworn 
to the faithful discharge of their duties by the moderators of 
the meetings at which they are appointed, and the town clerk 
shall make a record of the taking of such oath. Sts. 1893, 
ch. 417, §§ 116, 212. 

The authority of tellers appointed to aid in checking the 
names of voters and in assorting and counting the votes cast 

9 



130 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

at a town meeting, does not cease with the resignation of the 
moderator who appointed them, before they have reported the 
result of the votes. Atty-Gren. v. Crocker, 138 Mass. 214. 

§ 352. The moderator of a town meeting shall receive the 
votes of all persons whose names are borne on the list of 
voters as certified by the registrars of voters; and shall 
not be answerable for refusing the vote of a person whose 
name is not on said list, unless such person presents a cer- 
tificate from the registrars. Sts. 1893, ch. 417, § 281. 

§ 353. No vote shall be received by the presiding officers at 
any election provided for in this chapter unless presented for 
deposit in the ballot-box by the voter in person, open and un- 
folded, and so that such officers can know that only one ballot 
is presented. Sts. 1893, ch. 417, § 280. 

§ 354. Ballots cast by women qualified to vote for school 
committee, shall contain the words : For school committee, 
only, — clearly written, printed, or stamped upon the back 
thereof ; and only such ballots so endorsed shall be received 
from women so voting. Ballots containing such endorsement 
shall be counted only in the choice of members of school 
committee. Sts. 1893, ch. 417, § 283. 

§ 355. If within two days next following the day of an 
election in a town for town clerk, selectmen, assessors, trea- 
surer, collector of taxes, or school committee, at which all of 
said officers are voted for upon one ballot, ten or more quali- 
fied voters of such town file with the town clerk a statement 
in writing that they have reason to believe that an error was 
made in ascertaining or declaring the result of any such elec- 
tion, specifying wherein they deem such error to have been 
made, said clerk shall forthwith transmit such statement to 
the moderator. Such moderator shall thereupon, and within 
three days next following the day of such election, open the 
envelope or envelopes containing the ballots cast for candidates 
for the office the election to which is disputed, and determine 
the questions raised. If upon such determination it shall 
appear that some person was elected other than the person 
declared to have been elected, the moderator shall forthwith 
file a certificate of such fact, signed by him, stating therein 
the number of votes cast for each candidate for the office the 



MODERATORS AND THEIR DUTIES. 131 

election to which is disputed, as determined by the recount, 
with the town clerk, who shall record the same in his book of 
records of town meetings, directly following his record of the 
meeting at which said election was held, and shall within 
twenty -four hours after such filing cause a copy of such certi- 
ficate, attested by him, to be delivered to or left at the resi- 
dence of the person declared in open town-meeting to have 
been elected, and to the person who by such certificate appears 
to have been elected. The person who by such certificate 
appears to have received the highest number of votes shall be 
deemed to have been elected. Moderators may appoint tellers 
in accordance with the provisions stated in § 350 ante, to 
assist them in recounting ballots under the provisions of this 
section. The candidate or candidates whose election is disputed 
and the opposing candidate or candidates may be present, with 
counsel, at any recount made under the provisions of this 
section. Sts. 1893, ch. 417, §§ 208, 209. 

PARLIAMENTARY RULES FOR CONDUCTING TOWN 
MEETINGS. 

From Cashing 's Manual of Parliamentary Practice. 

1. Organization of meeting, how effected. 

2. Duties of presiding officer. 

3. Duties of a clerk. 

4. How measures are brought before a meeting. 

5. Motions : how put to vote, etc. 

6. Motions before meeting cannot be withdrawn by mover ; how 

disposed of. 

7. Amendments, how made and put to vote. 

8. Amendments, how amended. 

9. How question is put on motion to amend by striking out, etc. 

10. Privileged questions. 

11. Motions to adjourn. 

12. Questions of rights and privileges of members, etc. 

13. Order of the clay. 

14. Motions to reconsider. 

15. Quorum, what constitutes : effect of want of. 



132 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

Organization of meeting, how effected. 

1. Obviously the first thing to be effected in the conduct of any 
deliberative assembly is its organization; that is, the election of a 
presiding officer, and a clerk or recording officer. In meetings of 
comparatively small numbers of people, for ordinary purposes, this 
is accomplished as follows : Some one interested in the objects of 
the meeting, at the time appointed, requests the members to come 
to order for the necessary purpose of organization, and as soon as 
order and quiet are gained requests the compan} r to nominate some 
one for chairman or presiding officer. He thereupon declares the 
name first heard by him as nominated, and puts the question to 
vote, whether this person shall act as chairman. If this is decided 
in the negative, another nomination must be called for ; if decided 
in the affirmative, such person then takes the chair, and, suggesting 
to the company the necesstty of a clerk, requests a nomination, and 
proceeds as above specified in the case of the election of a chairman. 
If other officers are necessary, they may be elected in a similar 
manner. In the case of larger and more important assemblies, as 
for example political conventions, it is usual to have a temporaiy 
organization as above, and a committee appointed to nominate 
officers for a permanent organization. In town meetings for the 
election of national, state, district, and county officers, the select- 
men are authorized to preside, and as the town clerk acts as clerk 
of the meeting, the organization exists at the opening of the meet- 
ing. At all other town meetings a presiding officer, called Modera- 
tor, must first be chosen. The town clerk shall call the meeting to 
order and preside during the election of moderator, and if the town 
clerk is absent the selectmen shall preside, and if the town clerk is 
not present to act as clerk of the meeting, the selectmen shall call 
upon the qualified voters present to chose a clerk pro tempore, in 
like manner as town clerks are chosen. 

Duties of presiding officer. 

2. The duties of a presiding officer are, in general, to preserve 
decorum, to announce the business before the meeting in its order, 
to receive all motions made by members, and put to vote all ques- 
tions properly moved and seconded, and to state the result of all 
votes, and to inform the meeting when necessary or inquired of 
upon points of order. " He ma} T speak on points of order in pre- 
ference to other members." It is also his duty at an adjourned 
meeting to take the chair at the proper time and call the meeting to 



MODERATORS AND THEIR DUTIES. 133 

order. It is the rule that the ' ' presiding officer may read sitting, but 
shall rise to state a motion, or put a question to the assembly." 

Duties of a clerk. 

3. The general duties of a clerk of a meeting are to take notes 
of the proceedings and make the entries in his journal of " all 
things done and passed " in the meeting, but not of what is said or 
moved — simply without coming to vote. It is also his duty to 
read all papers which may be required to be read, to call the roll 
and note the answers when a question is taken by yeas or nays, 
notify persons of their election to office, and committees of the busi- 
ness referred to them, and keep the custody of papers belonging to 
the meeting. 

How measures are brought before a meeting. 

4. It has been said to be one of the duties of the presiding offi- 
cer to announce the business before the meeting in its order. This 
general order of business or subjects to be acted upon in town and 
parish meetings is found in the warrant for the meeting, which 
should be followed. After the presiding officer has announced to 
the meeting the subject to be acted upon as contained in the war- 
rant, it is in order and usual for some member to present a propo- 
sition to the meeting in reference to such subject in the form of a 
motion, the member rising and standing uncovered and addressing 
the presiding officer by his title ; as, " Mr. Moderator, I move 
that," etc. If the motion is one of any considerable length, or 
any but the most usual motions, it ought to be reduced to writing 
by the member Offering it, for convenience and to avoid mistake. 
The presiding officer may, however, receive it if he choose, and 
reduce it to writing himself. Questions of order, such as whether 
or not there has been a violation of the rules of the meeting, must 
be decided by the presiding officer without being put to vote, and 
in case of dissatisfaction with his decision the party so dissatisfied 
may appeal to the meeting. The question is then put, Shall the 
decision of the chair stand as the decision of the meeting? " If 
the presiding officer insists upon voting on an appeal (being other- 
wise entitled), he cannot, on any parliamentary principle, be 
prevented." Warrington's Manual. 



134 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

Motions: how put to vote, etc. 

5. All motions, except those of mere routine, and such as pass 
by general consent, should be seconded ; that is, some member 
should rise, and, standing uncovered, state to the presiding officer 
that he seconds the motion. The motion is then in a condition to 
be presented to the meeting for its action, — which is done by the 
presiding officer stating to the assembly, "It is moved and seconded 
that," etc. If it is one not likely to be debated, he adds, " If it 
be your pleasure that this motion pass, you will please to manifest 
it b} 7 raising the right hand," or " in the usual manner," if there is 
a usual manner in which such votes are taken. After those voting 
in the affirmative have voted and been counted, if the vote is 
regarded as close enough to require a count, or the meeting has 
required a count, the presiding officer calls in a similar manner for 
the vote of those opposed to the motion ; and then states to the 
meeting the result. If the voters are equally divided, the presiding 
officer may if he pleases give the casting vote. If he does not, the 
decision will be in the negative. " The presiding officer is justified 
in declining to put questions obviously frivolous or tending to 
disorder." 

Motions before meeting cannot be withdrawn by mover : how 
disposed of. 

6. When a motion has been made, seconded, and stated to the 
meeting, it is then in the possession of the meeting, and cannot be 
withdrawn by the mover except by vote of the meeting granting 
leave. It is the duty of the presiding officer to state, or cause to 
be read, a motion thus in possession of the assembly as often as 
any member requests it for his information. A motion thus before 
a meeting may be disposed of by indefinite postponement, or by 
postponement to a future day or hour, or by laying it on the table : 
such disposition being accomplished by motion and vote. If it be 
a matter of importance, and especially if it be one upon which the 
members require to be informed by the investigation of facts, the 
motion is referred to a committee with instructions to examine the 
subject as may be directed, and report at some future da} 7 . If it be 
one, on the other hand, which members are prepared to act upon, 
but are not satisfied with the exact form in which the motion has 
been made, it is in order to amend it. 



MODERATORS AND THEIR DUTIES. 135 

Amendments, how made and put to vote. 

7. Amendments may be made by striking out certain words, by 
inserting or adding certain words, or by striking out and inserting 
or adding certain words. An amendment may itself be amended 
in the same manner, — but this is the limit : there can be no 
amendment of an amendment to an amendment, — and in putting 
the question to vote it must be first on the amendment to an 
amendment, if there be one, and next on the amendment as thus 
amended, if the amendment to the amendment prevailed. If it is 
rejected, the question must then be put upon the original amend- 
ment. If this prevails, then the question is put on the original 
motion as amended. If it is rejected, the question is put upon the 
original motion. If an amendment prevails, or is rejected, it 
cannot be afterwards altered or amended. But if an amendment 
be to strike out or insert certain words, and it prevails, or is re- 
jected, an amendment may afterwards be moved to strike out or 
insert the same words in connection with others, if the other words 
so far modify the first as to make it a new amendment. 

Amendments, how amended. 

8. It has been said above that there can be no amendment to 
an amendment of an amendment. This object must be accomplished 
by rejecting the amendment to an amendment, and then moving to 
amend the original amendment as desired. And therefore it is 
well and customaiy for the person desiring such amendment to give 
notice that, if the amendment to the amendment is rejected, he 
shall move to amend the original amendment in such a manner, 
stating his amendment so that those desiring his amendment may 
vote to reject the other. 

How question is put on motion to amend by striking out, etc. 

9. When there is a motion to amend by striking out words, the 
form of putting the question to vote is, whether the words shall 
stand as part of the original motion, and not whether they shall 
be stricken out. The passage proposed to be amended should first 
be read as it stands ; then the words proposed to be stricken out ; 
and lastly the passage as it will stand after the amendment is 
adopted. An amendment ought not to be something entirely 
opposed to the original motion, but something of the same nature, 
intended to make it more effectual or useful for its original purpose, 
but this rule is not followed very strictly. 



136 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

Privileged questions. 

10. When a motion is regularly before the meeting, it has the 
precedence of all other questions, except such as are termed privi- 
leged questions. These are motions to adjourn, questions relating 
to the rights and privileges of the meeting, or of individual mem- 
bers, and motions for the orders of the day. 

Motions to adjourn. 

11. A motion to adjourn takes precedence of all other questions ; 
but it must be a motion to adjourn simply, without the addition of 
any particular time, in order to interrupt other business. It is 
sometimes the case, therefore, that a motion is made and carried 
early in the day, that, when the meeting adjourn, it be to some 
particular day, specifying it. A motion to adjourn simply, if carried, 
except in the case of such assemblies as have regular sitting days, 
has the effect to dissolve the meeting. 

Questions of rights ayid privileges of members, etc. 

12. Questions relating to the rights and privileges of the meeting 
or its members are such as arise in case of the disturbance of the 
proceedings or quarrels between members. When these are settled, 
the question interrupted thereby is to be taken up at the point 
where it was left. 

Order of the day. 

13. When any subject has been assigned by the meeting for 
consideration at a particular time, it takes precedence of other 
questions at that time, and is called the order of the day. 

Motions to reconsider. 

14. A motion to reconsider a vote already passed is usual in this 
country ; and if it prevails, the matter of the vote to be reconsidered 
stands in the same condition as if the vote to .be reconsidered had 
not passed, unless there is a rule of the assembly regulating the 
matter. A motion to reconsider may be made by any one, whether 
voting with the majority on the original question, or with the 
minority, unless there is a rule of the assembly to the contrary. 

Quorum, what constitutes : effect of want of. 

15. In most deliberative assemblies, it is required, either by law, 
or by the assembly itself, or by usage, that a certain number shall 



MODERATORS AND THEIR DUTIES. 137 

be present in order to transact business legally ; but where no rule 
is established in any of the ways mentioned above, a majority of 
the members composing the assembly is the required number. As 
no business can be transacted without a quorum, the meeting should 
not be opened until there is a quorum present ; and whenever there 
ceases to be, and notice is taken of the fact, there must be an ad- 
journment, but the question under consideration must be taken up 
at the next meeting of the assembly at the point where it was when 
the adjournment was had. 



138 THE TOWN OFFICER. 



CHAPTER IV. 

TOWN CLERKS AND THEIR DUTIES. 
IN GENERAL. 

§ 356. The town clerk shall record all votes passed at the 
meeting at which he is elected, and at all other meetings held 
during his continuance in office. Sts. 1893, ch. 423, § 2. 

This does not include the reports of committees, but only 
the votes passed by the town. Such reports should, however, 
be put on file, so that reference may be made to them ; other- 
wise the record in relation to them would be unintelligible. 
Howard v. Stevens, 3 Allen, 409. 

It is competent and proper for the town clerk to make a 
record of his own election and qualification ; and whenever 
the oath of office is administered to a town officer in open 
town meeting by a justice of the peace in presence of the town 
clerk, the clerk's record of the fact is competent evidence of the 
administration of the oath. Briggs v. Murdoch, 13 Pick. 305. 

§ 357. He shall administer the oaths of office to all town 
officers who appear before him for that purpose, and shall 
make a record thereof, and of oaths of office taken before jus- 
tices of the peace, of which certificates are filed. Sts. 1893, 
ch. 423, § 3. 

§ 358. When at a town meeting there is a vacancy in the 
office of town clerk, or when he is not present, the selectmen 
shall call upon the qualified voters present to elect a clerk pro 
tempore, in like manner as town clerks are chosen. The select- 
men shall sort and count the votes and declare the election of 
such clerk, who shall be sworn to discharge the duties of said 
office at such meeting, and be subject to like penalties for not 
discharging them as town clerks are for neglect of the like 
duties. Sts. 1893, ch. 417, § 285. 

§ 359. When other duties than those mentioned in the 



TOWN CLERKS AND THEIR DUTIES. 139 

preceding section are required to be performed by the town 
clerk, and there is a vacancy in such office, or such clerk is 
prevented from performing such duties, the selectmen may in 
writing under their hands appoint a clerk for the performance 
thereof, who shall be sworn, and shall immediately after 
entering upon the duties of his office make a record of such 
election or appointment. 

The town clerk in any town may appoint an assistant town 
clerk, which appointment shall be in writing, and said assist- 
ant shall be duly sworn to the faithful performance of his 
duties ; and such appointment and oath shall be recorded in 
the records of the town. Such assistant may, in the absence 
of the town clerk, perform any and all duties which the town 
clerk could perform if personally present, but such assistant 
shall not be entitled to any salary or fees as such, and his 
compensation, if any, shall be paid by the town clerk appoint- 
ing him ; but such assistant shall collect all fees for services 
performed by him and account to the town clerk therefor 
during the time he may act as aforesaid. But nothing herein 
shall prevent the selectmen from appointing a clerk pro 
tempore in accordance with the preceding section. Sts. 1893, 
ch. 417, § 85 ; ch. 423, § 4. 

§ 360. The town clerk shall transmit to the secretary of 
the Commonwealth and to the board of railroad commis- 
sioners a certified copy of any vote of the town to subscribe 
for the stock of a railroad company, or to pledge its credit or 
grant aid to the same, within thirty days from the day on 
which the vote was taken ; and if he neglects or refuses to do 
so, he shall be punished by fine of not less than five nor more 
than fifty dollars. Sts. 1893, ch. 423, § 5. 

§ 361. The clerk of each city or town in which a chief of 
police or city marshal is appointed, shall, within one week 
after such appointment, notify the commissioners of prisons 
of the name of the person so appointed. 

§ 362. The clerk of each town not having a chief of police 
shall, on the first day of October in each year, send to the 
commissioners of prisons the names of all the police officers 
and constables in such town. Sts. 1892, ch. 290, §§ 1, 2. 

§ 363. City and town clerks shall, upon payment of their 



140 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

fees, record, in books kept for the purpose, all mortgages of 
personal property delivered to them, noting in such books and 
on each mortgage the time when such mortgage is received ; 
and every such mortgage shall be considered as recorded at 
the time when it is left for the purpose in the clerk's office. 
The fees for recording, and for all other services relating 
thereto, shall be the same as are allowed to registers of deeds, 
for like services ; that is, for entering and recording a deed 
or other paper, certifying the same on the original and index- 
ing it, and for all other duties pertaining thereto, twenty-five 
cents, and if it contains more than one page, at the rate of 
twenty cents for each page after the first; to be paid when 
the instrument is left for record. 

For all copies, at the rate of twenty cents a page. 

For entering in the margin a discharge of a mortgage, 
twenty-five cents. Pub. Stats, ch. 192, § 4 ; ch. 199, § 20. 
They shall also record notices to foreclose, with the affidavits 
of service, and notices to pledgers of property of intention to 
foreclose, with affidavits of service, and notices of liens on 
ships. Pub. Stats, ch. 192, §§ 8, 10, 14. 

§ 364. Persons intending to bo joined in marriage in this 
Commonwealth shall, before their marriage, cause notice of 
their intention to be entered in the office of the clerk or regis- 
trar of the city or town in which they respectively dwell, or, if 
they do not dwell within the Commonwealth, in the office of 
the clerk or registrar of the city or town in which they pro- 
pose to have the marriage solemnized. If there is no such 
clerk or registrar in the place of their residence, the entry 
shall be made in an adjoining city or town. 

§ 365. The clerk or registrar shall deliver to the parties a 
certificate under his hand, specifying the time when notice of 
the intention of marriage was entered with" him, together with 
all facts in relation to the marriage which are required by law 
to be ascertained and recorded, except those respecting the 
person by whom the marriage is to be solemnized. Such cer- 
tificate shall be delivered to the minister or magistrate before 
whom the marriage is to be contracted, before he proceeds to 
solemnize the same. 

§ 366. If a clerk or registrar issues such certificate to a 



TOWN CLERKS AND THEIR DUTIES. 141 

male under the age of twenty-one years, or a female under the 
age of eighteen years, when he has reasonable cause to suppose 
the person to be under such age, except upon the application 
or consent in writing of the parent, master, or guardian of 
such person, he shall forfeit a sum not exceeding one hundred 
dollars ; but if there is no parent, master, or guardian in this 
State competent to act, a certificate may be issued without 
such application or consent. 

§ 367. The clerk or registrar may require of any person 
applying for such certificate an affidavit setting forth the age 
of the parties : which affidavit shall be sworn to before a 
justice of the peace, and shall be sufficient proof of age to 
authorize the issuing of the certificate. Pub. Stats, ch. 145, 
§§ 16-19. 

§ 368. When a marriage is solemnized in another State, 
between parties living in this Commonwealth, and they return 
to dwell here, they shall, within seven days after their return, 
file with the clerk or registrar of the city or town where either 
of them lived at the time a certificate or declaration of their 
marriage, including the facts concerning marriages required 
by law ; and for every neglect they shall forfeit ten dollars. 
Pub. Stats, ch. 145, § 21. 

§ 369. The fees of town clerks shall be as follows: For 
entering notice of an intention of marriage and issuing the 
certificate thereof, and for entering the certificate of marriage 
filed by persons married out of the State, fifty cents, to be 
paid by the parties. 

For a certificate of a birth or death, ten cents. Pub. Stats. 
ch. 199, § 16. 

§ 370. For copies of town records and other documents 
furnished to any person at his request, at the rate of twenty 
cents a page. And a page means two hundred and twenty- 
four words. Pub. Stats, ch. 199, §§ 20, 24, 25. 

§ 371. When an attachment is made of articles of personal 
estate which by reason of their bulk or other cause cannot be 
immediately removed, a certified copy of the writ (without 
the declaration), and of the return of the attachment, may at 
any time within three days thereafter be deposited in the 
office of the clerk of the city or town in which it is made ; and 



142 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

such attachment shall be equally valid and effectual as if the 
articles had been retained in the possession and custody of the 
officer. 

§ 372. The clerk shall receive and file all such copies, 
noting thereon the time when received, and keep them safely 
in his office, and also enter a note thereof, in the order in 
which they are received, in the books kept for recording mort- 
gages of personal property ; which entry shall contain the 
names of the parties to the suit and the date of the entry. 
The clerk's fee for this service shall be twenty-five cents, to 
be paid by the officer and included in his charge for the 
services of the writ. Pub. Stats, ch. 161, §§ 69, 70. 

§ 373. When an act or resolve takes effect upon its accept- 
ance by a municipal or other corporation, a return of the vote 
or action taken thereon shall be made by the clerk of such 
municipal or other corporation, within thirty days of such vote 
or action, to the secretary of the Commonwealth ; and when a 
time is prescribed in such act or resolve within which it may 
be accepted, and the act or resolve is rejected or no action is 
taken thereon within the time so prescribed, a return stating 
such rejection, or a return that no action has been taken, shall 
be so made within thirty days after the time so prescribed has 
elapsed. Sts. 1883, ch. 100. 

FORM. 

Warrant of Toivn Clerk to Constable to notify Town Officers to 
take the Oath of Office. 

To A. B., one of the Constables of the town of B . 

[l. s.] Greeting : 

The following is a list of those persons who were this cla} T chosen 
into office, at a meeting of the inhabitants of said town, and who 
have not taken the oath of office required of them hy law ; viz. 
[Here designate those offices to which they were chosen.] 

In the name of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts you are 
hereby required within three daj^s from the date hereof to summon 
each of the said persons to appear before me, clerk of said town, 
within seven days from the service of sueh summons, to take the oath 
by law prescribed to the office unto which the}' are respectively chosen. 

Hereof fail not, and make return of this warrant to me with }^our 

doings thereon, within seven days from the date hereof. 

Toivn Clerk. 



TOWN CLERKS AND THEIR DUTIES. 143 

TOWN RECORDS. 

§ 374. All matters of public record in any office shall 
be entered or recorded on paper made of linen rags and 
new cotton clippings, well sized with animal sizing and well 
finished ; and in the selection of paper for such records pref- 
erence shall be given to such paper of American manufacture 
if it is marked in water line with the name of the manufacturer. 
Sts. 1891, ch. 281. 

§ 375. The county commissioners, city governments, and 
selectmen of the respective counties, cities, and towns, shall 
have all books of public record or registry belonging thereto 
substantially bound, and other papers and documents within 
their respective departments duly filed and arranged conveni- 
ently for examination and reference, and shall also cause such 
of said records as are left incomplete by any clerk or registrar 
to be made up and completed by his successor from the files 
and usual memoranda as far as practicable, and certified 
and preserved in the same manner and with the same effect 
as if the same had been done by the officer who left them 
incomplete. 

§ 376. City governments and selectmen shall provide, at 
the expense of their respective cities and towns, fire-proof 
safes of ample size for the preservation of books of record or 
registry, and other important documents or papers belonging 
to such cities or towns ; and the clerk of each city and town 
shall keep in the safe so provided all such books, papers, and 
documents, at all times, except when they are wanted for use. 
Pub. Stats, ch. 37, §§ 2, 4. 

§ 377. A city or town may cause to be carefully transcribed 
such of its records as relate to grants of lands, or the grants 
or divisions and allotments of land made by the original pro- 
prietors of the township, or to any easements, private rights, 
or ways, and also any records of births, deaths, and marriages 
kept by such city or town, or by any parish within the same. 
Pub. Stats, ch. 37, § 5 ; Sts. 1887, ch. 202. 

§ 378. A city or town whose territory has in whole or in 
part been set off from any other city or town may cause to be 
carefully transcribed such records named in the preceding 



144 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

section as relate to lands, easements, rights, or ways, situated 
in the territory so set off. Pub. Stats, ch. 37, § 6. 

§ 379. The clerk of each town and city in the Common- 
wealth shall make and keep an index or indexes of all instru- 
ments entered with him and required by law to be recorded, 
which index or indexes shall be divided into five columns, 
with appropriate heads or titles giving date of reception, the 
names of parties, and the book and page on which each instru- 
ment is recorded, and the same shall be open for public 
inspection. Sfcs. 1885, ch. 190. 

§ 380. When the records of a county, city, or town are 
becoming worn, mutilated, or illegible, the county commis- 
sioners, city government, or selectmen shall have fair and 
legible copies seasonably made ; and when the interests of a 
county, city, or town require it, the county commissioners, 
mayor and aldermen, selectmen, or overseers of the poor may 
have copies of records, parts of records, papers, or documents, 
in the legal custody of any other county, city, or town, so 
made at the expense of their respective counties, cities, or 
towns ; and such copies shall be certified by the registrar or 
clerk of the office in which they are made to be true copies of 
the originals, and they shall be preserved in like manner as 
the original records, papers, and documents of the place for 
which they are made. 

§ 381. A copy made in pursuance of the provisions of the 
preceding sections, and compared and certified under oath by 
the clerk or registrar having the custody of the original to be 
a true copy, shall have the same force and effect when depos- 
ited among the records of the place for which it is made as 
if it were an original record, or an original paper or document, 
deposited there. Pub. Stats, ch. 37, §§ 7, 8. 

§ 382. Registers of deeds, registers of courts, and the 
registrars and clerks of courts, cities, and towns, shall keep all 
records and documents belonging to their respective offices in 
their sole custody, and shall in no case, except upon summons 
in due form of law, or when the temporary removal of records 
and documents in their custody is necessary or convenient for 
the transaction of the business of the courts or the perfor- 
mance of the duties of their respective offices, cause or permit 
any record or document to be removed or taken away. 



TOWN CLERKS AND THEIR DUTIES. 145 

§ 383. Under the direction of the officers having the cus- 
tody of any county, city, or town records or files, all such 
records and files shall be open for public inspection and ex- 
amination, and any person may take copies thereof. And the 
several clerks and registrars shall, on payment of a reasonable 
fee therefor, compare and certify all copies properly and cor- 
rectly made. 

§ 384. The legal custody of the books of record and other 
documents of the ancient proprietors of townships or common 
lands, when such proprietors have ceased to be a body corpo- 
rate, shall, unless they have made other legal disposition 
thereof, be vested in the clerk of the city or town in which 
such lands or the larger portion of them are situated ; and if 
such records and documents are in the possession of any other 
person, such clerk shall demand the same. Such clerk may 
make and certify copies of such records and documents in the 
same manner as the clerk of the proprietors might have done. 
Pub. Stats, ch. 37, §§ 12-14. 

§ 385. When a church or religious society ceases to have 
a legal existence, and the care of its records and registries is 
not otherwise provided for by law, the person having posses- 
sion of such records or registries shall deliver them to the 
clerk of the city or town in which such church or society was 
situated, and such clerk may certify copies thereof. If the 
person having possession of such records or registries neglects 
to deliver them to the clerk of the city or town entitled to 
receive them as aforesaid, such clerk shall demand the same. 
Sts. 1890, ch. 227. 

REGISTRY AND RETURNS OF BIRTHS, MARRIAGES, AND 

DEATHS. 

§ 386. The clerk of each city and town shall receive or 
obtain, and record and index, the following facts concerning 
the births, marriages, and deaths therein, separately numbering 
and recording the same in the order in which he receives 
them, designating in separate columns as follows : 

In the record of births, the date of birth, the place of birth, 
the name of the child (if it has any), the sex and color of the 
child, the names and the places of birth of the parents, the 

10 



146 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

occupation of the father, the residence of the parents, and the 
date of the record. 

In the record of marriages, the date of the marriage, the 
place of marriage, the name, residence, and official station of 
the person by whom married, the names and the places of 
birth of the parties, the residence of each, the age and color 
of each, the condition of each (whether single or widowed), 
the occupation, the names of the parents, and the date of the 
record. 

In the record of deaths, the date of the death, the name of 
the deceased, the sex, the color, the condition (whether single, 
widowed, or married), the age, the residence, the occupation, 
the place of death, the place of birth, the names and places of 
birth of parents, the disease or cause of death, the place of 
burial, if the deceased was a married woman her maiden name 
and the name of her husband, and the maiden name of the 
mother of any deceased person, and the date of the record. 
Pub. Stats, ch. 32, § 1 ; Sts. 1890, ch. 402. 

§ 387. The clerk or registrar of each city and town shall 
on the first day of each month make a certified copy of the 
record of all deaths and births recorded in the books of said 
city or town during the previous month, whenever the deceased 
person or the parents of the child born, were resident in any 
other city or town in this Commonwealth at the time of said 
death or birth ; and shall transmit said certified copies to the 
clerk or registrar of the city or town in which such deceased 
person or parents were resident at the time of said death or 
birth, stating in addition the name of the street and number 
of the house, if any, where such deceased person or parents 
so resided, whenever the same can be ascertained ; and the 
clerk or registrar so receiving such certified copies shall record 
the same in the books kept for recording deaths or births. 
Such certified copies shall be made upon blanks to be furnished 
for that purpose by the secretary of the Commonwealth. Sts. 
1889, ch. 208. 

§ 388. Whenever the records of any city or town do not 
contain the facts relating to a birth, death, or marriage which 
occurred therein, or whenever such facts are not fully or cor- 
rectly stated on such records, the clerk or registrar of such city 



TOWN CLERKS AND THEIR DUTIES. 147 

or town may receive a deposition, under oath, containing such 
facts as are desired for record, and shall then file said deposi- 
tion, and record said facts in a book to be kept for that purpose, 
stating in addition thereto the name and residence of the depo- 
nent and the date of such record. The clerk or registrar shall 
keep such book separate and apart from the official records 
of his office, and may certify to the facts contained therein : 
provided, however, that such certificate shall state in addition to 
all the facts so recorded that the certificate is issued in accord- 
ance with the provisions of this act. Sts. 1892, ch. 305. 

§ 389. Parents shall give notice to the clerk of their city 
or town of the births and deaths of their children ; every 
householder shall give like notice of every birth and death 
happening in his house; the eldest person next of kin shall 
give such notice of the death of his kindred ; ihe keeper of a 
workhouse, house of correction, prison, hospital, or almshouse, 
except the state almshouse, and the master or other command- 
ing officer of a ship, shall give like notice of every birth and 
death happening among the persons under his charge. Who- 
ever neglects to give such notice for the space of six months 
after a birth or death shall forfeit a sum not exceeding five 
dollars. Pub. Stats, ch. 32, § 2. 

§ 390. A physician who has attended a person during his 
last illness shall, when requested, forthwith furnish for regis- 
tration, a certificate stating to the best of his knowledge and 
belief, the name of the deceased, his age, the disease of which 
he died, the duration of his last sickness, and the date of his 
decease. Sts. 1888, ch. 306, § 1. 

§ 391. Every sexton, undertaker, or other person having 
charge of a burial-ground, and every undertaker or superin- 
tendent of burials having charge of the funeral rites prelimi- 
nary to the interment of a human body, shall forthwith obtain 
and return to the clerk of the city or town in which the deceased 
resided, or the death occurred, the facts required by this 
chapter to be recorded by said officer concerning the deceased, 
and the person making such return shall receive from his 
city or town the fee of twenty-five cents therefor. All such 
returns shall be preserved by said clerk or registrar, and 
filed, arranged and indexed conveniently for examination and 
reference. Pub. Stats, ch. 32, § 4 ; Sts. 1887, ch. 202, § 2. 



148 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

§ 392. Physicians and mid wives shall on or before the fifth 
day of each month report to the clerk of each city or town a 
correct list of all children' born therein during the month next 
preceding, at whose birth they were present, stating the date 
and place of each birth, the name of the child (if it has any), 
the sex and color of the child, the name, place of birth and 
residence of the parents, and the occupation of the father. 
The fee of the physician or midwife shall be twenty-five cents 
for each birth so reported and shall be paid by the city or 
town in which the report is made. Sts. 1889, ch. 288. 

§ 393. The clerk of each city and town shall give public 
notice that he is prepared to furnish, to all physicians and 
midwives applying therefor, blanks for returns under the pre- 
ceding section. Pub. Stats, ch. 32, § 8. 

§ 394. The clerk of each city and town shall annually, on 
or before the first day of March, transmit to the secretary of 
the Commonwealth certified copies of the records of the births, 
marriages, and deaths which have occurred therein during the 
year ending on the last day of the preceding December. 

§ 395. The record of the town clerk relative to a birth, 
marriage, or death shall be prima facie evidence, in legal 
proceedings, of the facts recorded. A certificate, signed by 
the town clerk for the time being, shall be admissible as evi- 
dence of such record. Pub. Stats, ch. 32, §§ 10, 11. 

§ 396. The clerk of each city and town (except in such 
cities and towns as choose a registrar, in which cases the provi- 
sions of this section shall apply to the registrar), for receiving 
or obtaining, recording, indexing, and returning the facts 
relating to marriages, births, and deaths occurring therein, 
shall be entitled to receive from the city or town, for each 
marriage, fifteen cents ; for each birth, fifty cents ; for each 
death returned to him by the person specified in §§ 389, 390, 
and 391, ante, twenty cents for each of the first twenty entries, 
and ten cents for each subsequent entry ; for each death not 
so returned, but by him obtained and recorded, thirty-five 
cents, as the same shall be certified by the secretary of the 
Commonwealth ; but a city or town containing more than ten 
thousand inhabitants may limit the aggregate compensation 
allowed to their clerk or registrar. Pub. Stats, ch. 32, § 12. 



TOWN CLERKS AND THEIR DUTIES. 149 

"Fees received for these services are received in an offi- 
cial capacity, and form part of the aggregate compensation 
which may be limited under the statute." Allen, J., in Plielan 
v. Lawrence, 141 Mass. 479. 

§ 397. The superintendent of the state almshouse shall 
obtain, record, and make return of the facts in relation to the 
births and deaths which occur in his institution, in like manner 
as is required of town clerks. The clerk of a town in which 
such almshouse is located shall, in relation to the births and 
deaths of persons in said almshouse, be exempt from the 
duties otherwise required of him by this chapter. 

§ 398. The secretary shall, at the expense of the Common- 
wealth, prepare and furnish to the clerks of the several cities 
and towns, and to the superintendent of the state almshouse, 
blank books of suitable quality and size to be used as books of 
record under this chapter, blank books for indexes thereto, 
and blank forms for returns, on paper of uniform size ; and 
shall accompany the same with such instructions and explana- 
tions as may be necessary and useful. City and town clerks 
shall make such distribution of blank forms of returns fur- 
nished by the secretary as he shall direct. Pub. Stats, ch. 32, 

§§ 13, 14. 

§ 399. A city or town containing more than ten thousand 
inhabitants may choose a person other than the clerk to be 
registrar, who shall be sworn, and to whom all the provisions 
of these sections concerning clerks shall apply. The returns 
and notices required to be made and given to clerks shall be 
made and given to such registrar under like penalties. 

§ 400. A city or town may make rules and regulations to 
enforce the above provisions, or to secure a more perfect regis- 
tration of births, marriages, and deaths therein. Pub. Stats, 
ch. 32, §§ 16, 18. 

FORMS. 

Certificate of Marriage. 

Between of aged years, by occupation a He was 

born in and was the son of This will be his marriage. 

And of aged years. She was born in and was the 

daughter of This will be her marriage. 



150 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

The intentions of marriage, by the parties above named, were 

duly entered by me in the records of the town of B relating to 

marriages, according to law. 

Dated at B , this day of a. d. 189 . 

Town Clerk. 
The parties above named were joined in marriage at by me, 
this day of a. d. 189 . 

Attest, 

Intention of Marriage between 

Mr. residing in He is years of age, a by occu- 

pation, was born in Father's name (in full). Mother's name 
(in full). This will be his marriage. 

And M residing in She is years of age, was born 

in Father's name (in full). Mother's name (in full). 

This will be her marriage. 

Return of a Birth in B to the Town Clerk. 

Date of birth, 189 . Full name of Child, Sex, 

Color, Place of birth (street and number), Christian name 

of father, Christian name of mother, Present residence of 

parents, Occupation of the father, Father's birthplace, 
Mother's birthplace, 

Return of Death to the Town Cleric. 

Date of death, 189 . Name, Color, Aged 

years months days. Place of death, 

Residence, Sex, Single Married 

Occupation, Wife of Birthplace, Widow of 

Name of father, Name of mother, Birthplace of father, 

Birthplace of mother, Cause of death, Primary 

Duration, Secondary Duration, Place of interment, 
Date of interment or removal, Undertaker or informant, 

Physician's Certificate of Death. 

B , 189 . 

This certifies that died on the day of 189 , aged 
years, months, days. 

Cause of death, Primary, Duration. Secondary, 
Duration. 

Physician. 



TOWN CLERKS AND THEIR DUTIES. 151 

Town Cleric's Certificate of the Registry of a Death. 

[The person to whom this Certificate is given shall deliver it to the 
person having charge of the interment (if other than himself), before the 
burial when practicable, otherwise within seven days thereafter.] 

I, town clerk of do hereby certify that the death of 
who died at street, 189, aged years, 

months, days, was duly registered by me on the . day of 
189 . 

Town Clerk. 
Dated this day of 189 . 

B , 189 . 

Permission is hereby given to to remove the body of 

who died at B , 189 , aged years, months, days, 

for interment at the particulars required by law having been 

duly registered by me. 

Town Clerk. 

DOGS. 

§ 401. Every owner or keeper of a dog three months old 
or over shall annually, on or before the thirtieth day of April 
or whenever it is three months old, cause it to be registered, 
numbered, described, and licensed for one year from the first 
day of the ensuing May, in the office of the clerk of the city 
or town wherein said dog is kept, and shall cause it to wear 
around its neck a collar distinctly marked with its owner's 
name and its registered number. Pub. Stats, ch. 102, § 80 ; 
Sts. 1885, ch. 292. 

§ 402. An owner of a dog may at any time have it licensed 
until the first day of the ensuing May ; and a person becoming 
the owner or keeper of a dog after the first day of May, not 
duly licensed, shall cause it to be registered, numbered, de- 
scribed, and licensed as provided in the preceding section. 
Pub. Stats, ch. 102, § 81. 

§ 403. The fee for every license shall be two dollars for a 
male dog, and five dollars for a female dog, unless a certificate 
of some competent person who performed the operation is 
filed with the clerk of the city or town, that said female dog 
has been subjected to the operation of spaying and is thereby 
deprived of the power to perpetuate her species, in which case 
the fee shall be two dollars. Sts. 1890, ch. 72. 



152 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

§ 404. Every owner or keeper of dogs kept for breeding 
purposes, may receive annually a special license authorizing 
him to keep such dogs upon the premises described in such 
license. When the number of dogs so kept does not exceed 
five, the fee for such license shall be twenty -five dollars ; when 
the number of dogs so kept exceeds five the fee shall be fifty 
dollars ; and no fee shall be required for the dogs of such owner 
or keeper under the age of six months. Sts. 1887, ch. 307. 

§ 405. Every license issued to the owner of a dog shall 
have printed thereon a description of the symptoms of the 
disease in dogs known as hydrophobia, said description to be 
supplied by the secretary of the state board of health to the 
clerks of the several cities and towns upon application there- 
for. Pub. Stats, ch. 102, § 83 ; Sts. 1886, ch. 101, § 4. 

§ 406. Town clerks shall give bonds with sureties to the 
town, to be approved by the selectmen, for the faithful account- 
ing for all moneys received by them for dog licenses, and for 
the payment of the same, less their fees, into the treasuries of 
their respective counties. Sts. 1888, ch. 320, § 1. 

§ 407. The clerks of cities and of towns shall issue said 
licenses, and receive the money therefor, and pay the same 
into the treasuries of their respective counties, except in the 
county of Suffolk, on or before the first days of June and 
December of each year, retaining to their own use twenty 
cents for each license, and shall return therewith a sworn 
statement of the amount of moneys thus received and paid 
over by them. They shall also keep a record of all licenses 
issued by them, with the names of the keepers or owners of 
dogs licensed, and the names, registered numbers, and descrip- 
tion of all such dogs. Pub. Stats, ch. 102, § 84 ; Sts. 1886, 
ch. 259. 

The fees received by the clerk of a town for licensing dogs 
under this section, which allows him to retain to his own use 
a certain sum for each license issued, the balance to be paid 
into the treasury of the county, are not received in his " offi- 
cial capacity " within the meaning of a resolution of the 
council fixing his salary at a certain sum, and providing that 
he shall account for all moneys received in such " capacity." 
" The licenses were not granted by the city, and the license 



TOWN CLERKS AND THEIR DUTIES. 153 

fees belonged to the county, and the plaintiff, in collecting and 
paying them over, acted for the county, rather than for the 
city." Allen, J., in Phelan v. Lawrence, 141 Mass. 479. 

§ 408. Each county, city, and town treasurer, except in 
the county of Suffolk, shall keep an accurate and separate 
account of all moneys received and expended by him under 
the provisions of this chapter relating to dogs. Pub. Stats. 
ch. 102, § 85. 

§ 409. A license duly recorded shall be valid in any part 
of the Commonwealth and may be transferred with the dog 
licensed: provided, that said license shall in each case of 
transfer be again recorded by the clerk of the city or town 
where such dog is kept ; but no license shall be required to be 
recorded anew unless such dog shall have been kept in such 
city or town at least thirty days. Sts. 1884, ch. 185. 

§ 410. The assessors shall annually take a list of all dogs 
owned or kept in their respective cities or towns on the first 
day of May, with the owners' or keepers' names, and return 
the same to the city or town clerk on or before the first day 
of July. An owner or keeper of a dog who refuses to answer, 
or answers falsely to the assessors relative to the ownership 
thereof, shall be punished by fine of not less than ten dollars, 
to be paid, except in the county of Suffolk, into the county 
treasury. Pub. Stats, ch. 102, § 89. 

LOST GOODS, STRAY BEASTS, AND UNCLAIMED PROPERTY. 

§ 411. Whoever finds lost money or goods of the value of 
three dollars or more, the owner whereof is unknown, shall 
within two days cause notice thereof to be posted up in two 
public places within the city or town where the same was 
found, and shall also within seven days give notice thereof in 
writing to the city or town clerk, and pay him twenty-five 
cents for making an entry thereof in a book to be kept for 
that purpose ; and if the money or goods be of the value of 
ten dollars or more, the finder shall within one month after 
such finding cause the same to be advertised in some news- 
paper or publicly cried, if there is a crier in the place, and 
notice thereof to be posted up in like manner in two adjoining 
places. 



154 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

§ 412. Whoever takes up a stray beast shall cause to be 
entered with the city or town clerk, in a book to be kept for 
the purpose, a notice thereof, containing a description of the 
color and natural and artificial marks of the beast ; and shall 
cause the same to be cried, and notifications thereof containing 
a like description of the beast to be posted up in the manner 
provided in the preceding section ; otherwise he shall not be 
entitled to compensation for any expenses which he may incur 
in relation thereto. 

§ 413. If such stray beasts are taken up within ten miles of 
the agricultural hall in ward twenty-five of Boston, the finder 
within ten days thereafter shall, in addition to the notice 
before required, post up a similar notice in said ward at such 
public place as shall have been designated therefor by the 
board of aldermen of Boston ; and the finder shall be entitled 
to receive therefor fifty cents, together with eight cents for 
every mile travelled for the purpose. 

§ 414. Every finder of lost goods or stray beasts of the value 
of ten dollars or more shall also, within two months, and before 
any use is made of the same, procure from the city or town 
clerk, or from a justice of the peace, a warrant directed to two 
disinterested persons, to be appointed by the clerk or justice, 
and returnable into said clerk's office in seven days from the 
date, requiring them to appraise the same at their true value, 
upon oath to be administered by the clerk or justice. Pub. 
Stats, ch. 95, §§ 1-4. 

FORM. 

Appointment of Persons to appraise Lost Goods or Stray Beasts. 

To A. B. and C. D., both of B , in the county of E , [l. s.] 

Greeting : 

You are hereb}^ appointed to appraise upon oath, at their true 
value [here describe the goods], . . . found {and if it be beast 
add, and taken up) by E. F., of 

And you are directed to make return of this warrant, with your 

doings thereon, to the town clerk's office of said B within seven 

days from the date hereof. Given under nry hand and seal the 
day of 189 . 

L. P., Town Clerk of B 



SELECTMEN, THEIR POWERS AND DUTIES. 155 



CHAPTER V. 
SELECTMEN, THEIR POWERS AND DUTIES. 

IN GENERAL. 

§ 415. The selectmen shall be assessors of taxes and over- 
seers of the poor in towns where other persons are not spe- 
cially chosen to those offices, and when acting as assessors they 
shall take the oath required of assessors. Sts. 1893, ch. 423, 
§6. 

" There is no statutory requirement that distinct boards 
of assessors and overseers shall be chosen, and the statute 
provides that the selectmen shall be assessors of taxes and 
overseers of the poor in towns where other persons are not 
specially chosen to those offices." Devens, J., in CW. v. 
Wentworth, 145 Mass. 50, at p. 52. 

" The powers and duties of selectmen are not very fully 
defined by statute. Many of the acts usually performed by 
them in behalf of towns, and which are recognized as within 
their appropriate sphere, have their origin and foundation in 
long continued usage. The management of the prudential 
affairs of towns necessarily requires the exercise of a large 
discretion, and it would be quite impossible by positive enact- 
ment to place definite limits to the powers and duties of select- 
men to whom the direction and control of such affairs are 
intrusted. Speaking generally, it may be said that they are 
agents to take the general superintendence of the business of 
a town, to supervise the doings of subordinate agents, and the 
disbursement of moneys appropriated by vote of the town, to 
take care of its property, and perform other similar duties. 
But they are not general agents. They are not clothed with 
the general power of the corporate body for which they act. 
They can only exercise such powers and perform such duties 
as are necessarily and properly incident to the special and 



156 THE TOWN OFFICER, 

limited authority conferred on them by their office. They are 
special agents empowered to do only such acts as are required 
to meet the exigencies of ordinary town business." Smith v. 
Cheshire, 13 Gray, 319 ; Bean v. Hyde Park, 143 Mass. 245. 
They are not authorized to institute or defend suits where the 
town is a party, without special power given by the town. 
Walpole v. Gray, 11 Allen, 149. Nor are they authorized 
by virtue of their office merely to make a contract, in be- 
half of a town, for the hiring of a building for the pur- 
pose of holding town meetings in it. Groff v. Behoboth, 12 
Met. 26. 

Where a town voted at a meeting to authorize the select- 
men to make a deed of land to a railroad corporation, and 
the succeeding board of selectmen made the deed, it was held 
that no title passed by the deed. " The authority was con- 
ferred upon an existing board of public officers. It must be 
presumed that in giving this authority the voters considered 
the membership of the existing board, and that they did not 
intend to allow the question to be postponed and afterwards 
determined by a board of selectmen that might be elected the 
next or any subsequent year." Knowlton, J., in Littlefield v. 
Boston and Albany Bailroad, 146 Mass. 268. 

§ 416. Every person elected selectman, who enters upon 
the performance of his duties before taking the oath of office, 
shall forfeit for each offence a sum not exceeding one hundred 
dollars. Sts. 1893, ch. 423, § 9. 

§ 417. There shall be a perambulation of town lines, and 
they shall be run and the marks renewed, once in every five 
years, by two or more of the selectmen of each town, or by 
such substitutes as they in writing appoint for that purpose. 
After every such renewal the proceedings shall be recorded in 
the records of the respective towns. 

§ 418. Before a perambulation, the selectmen of the most 
ancient of the contiguous towns shall give ten days' notice, 
in writing, to the selectmen of the adjoining town, of the time 
and place of meeting for such perambulation ; and selectmen 
who neglect to give such notice, or to attend either personally 
or by their substitutes, shall severally forfeit twenty dollars, 
to be recovered on complaint to the use of the Commonwealth, 



157 

or by action of tort to the use of the town whose selectmen 
perform their duty. 

§ 419. The selectmen of the contiguous towns shall erect, 
at the joint and equal expense of such towns, permanent monu- 
ments to designate their respective boundary lines at every 
angle thereof (except where such lines are bounded by the 
ocean or by some permanent stream of water), and wherever 
a highway crosses such lines. The monuments shall be of 
stone, well set in the ground, and at said angles at least four 
feet high from its surface ; and the initial letters of the respec- 
tive names of such contiguous towns shall be plainly and 
legibly cut thereon ; but it shall not be necessary to erect a 
new monument at said angles in a place where a permanent 
stone monument two feet in height above the surface of the 
ground already exists. 

§ 420. The selectmen of towns bordering on another state, 
where the lines between the states are settled and established, 
shall once in every five years give notice to the selectmen or 
other proper municipal officers of such towns in the other 
state as adjoin their towns, of their intention to perambulate 
the lines between their adjoining towns. If such notice and 
proposal are accepted by the officers to whom they are made, 
a perambulation shall be made in the same manner as between 
towns in this Commonwealth. No boundary erected by author- 
ity of this state and an adjoining state shall be removed by 
such selectmen or other municipal officers. 

§ 421. A selectman who refuses or neglects to perform 
any duty required of him by the two preceding sections shall 
forfeit twenty dollars to the use of the Commonwealth. Pub. 
Stats, ch. 27, §§ 3-7. 

§ 422. The mayor and aldermen of a city or selectmen of 
a town, when in their opinion the public good requires it, may 
offer a suitable reward, to be paid by such city or town, not 
exceeding five hundred dollars in one case, to any person who 
in consequence of such offer secures a person charged with a 
capital crime or other high crime or misdemeanor committed 
in such place, or detects and secures a person who has com- 
mitted such crime in such place ; and such reward shall be 
paid by the treasurer upon the warrant of the mayor and 
aldermen or selectmen. Pub. Stats, ch. 212, § 12. 



158 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

It has been held that the person for whose arrest a reward 
is offered must have been charged by a complaint or indict- 
ment. Bay v. Otis, 8 Allen, 477. 

§ 423. When more than one claimant applies for the pay- 
ment of such reward, the mayor and aldermen or selectmen 
shall determine to whom the same shall be paid, and if to 
more than one person, in what proportion to each ; and their 
determination shall be final and conclusive. 1 Pub. Stats, ch. 
212, § 13. 

§ 424. The selectmen of a town may make rules and orders 
for the regulation of all carriages and vehicles used either 
wholly or in part therein, whether with or without animal 
power, with penalties for violations thereof, not exceeding 
twenty dollars for one offence ; and may receive annually one 
dollar, and no more, for each license granted by them to a 
person to set up and use any carriage or vehicle within such 
town : provided, that any rules and orders made by the select- 
men under the authority hereof shall not take effect until 
they have been published at least one week in some newspaper 
published in the said town, if there is any newspaper published 
in said town, otherwise in the county in which said town is 
situated. This act shall not impair the right of a town to 
make by-laws relating to the subject. Sts. 1885, ch. 197. 

§ 425. The selectmen shall appoint the following officers : 
In towns where beef cattle are sold for the purpose of market 
or barrelling, they shall appoint weighers-of beef. Pub. Stats. 
ch. 60, § 1. They shall appoint measurers of grain. Pub. 
Stats, ch. 60, § 23. They shall appoint suitable persons to be 
weighers of coal, in all places where anthracite, bituminous, 
or mineral coal is sold, except when it is sold by cargo. Pub. 
Stats, ch. 60, § 80. They shall, in every town of more than 
fifteen hundred inhabitants, and in every town of less than 
that number of inhabitants upon the written application of 
five or more inhabitants of that town, appoint inspectors of 
petroleum or its products. Pub. Stats, ch. 59, § 6. They 
shall appoint persons to seize illegal measures for charcoal, 

1 There is no statute provision in reference to the amount of compensation 
selectmen shall receive for the performance of their general duties ; it is left to 
the town to determine this. 



SELECTMEN, THEIR POWERS AND DUTIES. 15 9 

and to prosecute people having them in their possession. Pub. 
Stats, ch. 60, § 88. The selectmen may appoint the following 
officers : On the petition of ten or more voters in every town 
in which pressed or bundled hay is sold, they may appoint in- 
spectors of hay and straw. Pub. Stats, ch. 60, § 35. They may 
appoint inspectors of vinegar. Pub. Stats, ch. 60, § 71. They 
may appoint a surveyor of marble and freestone. Pub. Stats. 
ch. 60, § 53. They may appoint inspectors of milk. Pub. Stats. 
ch. 57, § 1. They may appoint inspectors of provisions, and of 
animals intended for slaughter. Pub. Stats, ch. 58, § l. 1 

§ 426. The aldermen of any city except Boston, and the 
selectmen of any town, may establish the office of probation 
officer, and fix his salary. When the office has been estab- 
lished, the officer may be appointed by the mayor, subject to 
the confirmation of the aldermen, or by the selectmen, and 
shall hold his office until removed by the aldermen or select- 
men. He shall in the execution of his official duties have the 
powers of police officers, and may be a member of the police 
force of his city or town. The city or town clerk shall forth- 
with notify the commissioners of prisons of any appointment 
under this section. Pub. Stats, ch. 212, § 74. 

§ 427. The mayor and aldermen of a city and the select- 
men of a town may adopt rules and orders not inconsistent 
with law for the regulation and control of persons who fre- 
quent the streets and public places therein playing on hand 
organs or other musical instruments, beating drums, blowing 
trumpets, or coasting with sleds or other vehicles, with penal- 
ties for the violation thereof not exceeding twenty dollars for 
each offence. Sts. 1892, ch. 390. 

§ 428. When a person by excessive drinking, gaming, 
idleness, or debauchery of any kind, so spends, wastes, or 
lessens his estate as to expose himself or his family to want 
or suffering, or any place to charge or expense for the support 

1 The duties of these officers are, for all practical purposes, sufficiently implied 
by their titles. Their duties will be found more in detail, in the following chap- 
ters of the Public Statutes • weighers of beef, ch. 60, §§ 1, 2 ; measurers of grain, 
ch. 60, §§ 21-28 ; weighers of coal, Pub. Stats, ch. 60, §§ 79-84 ; inspectors of pe- 
troleum. Pub. Stats, ch. 59, §§ 6, 7 ; seizers of illegal measures for charcoal, Pub. 
Stats, ch. 60, §§ 85-88 ; inspectors of hay and straw, ch. 60, §§ 32-40 ; inspectors 
of vinegar, ch. 60, §§ 69-71, Sts. 1883, ch. 257, § 2, Sts. 1884, chs. 163, and 307, 
§§ 1-4 ; inspector of milk, ch. 57, §§ 1-12 ; inspector of provisions, ch. 58, §§ 1-6. 



160 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

of himself or his family, the selectmen of the town of which 
such spendthrift is an inhabitant or resident, or upon which 
he is or may become chargeable, may present a complaint 
to the probate court, setting forth the facts and circumstances 
of the case, and praying to have a guardian appointed. The 
court shall cause notice of not less than fourteen days to be 
given to the supposed spendthrift, of the time and place 
appointed for the hearing; and if after a full hearing it 
appears that he comes within the above description, the court 
shall appoint a guardian of his person and estate. Pub. Stats. 
ch. 139, § 8. 

§ 429. The mayor and aldermen of the cities and the 
selectmen of the towns within the Commonwealth are hereby 
authorized to designate and preserve, as hereinafter provided 
in this act, trees within the limits of the highways for the pur- 
poses of ornament and shade ; and to so designate not less 
than one such tree in every thirty-three feet where such trees 
are growing and are of a diameter of one inch or more. 
Sts. 1890, ch. 196, § 1. 

§ 430. Said mayor and aldermen and selectmen shall, 
between the first day of September and the thirty-first day of 
December in each year, designate such trees as are selected by 
them for the purposes set forth in this act by driving into the 
same, at a point not less than four nor more than six feet from 
the ground and on the side toward the centre of the highway, 
a nail or spike with a head with the letter M. plainly impressed 
upon it ; said nails and spikes to be procured and furnished by 
the secretary of the state board of agriculture to said mayor 
and aldermen and selectmen as required by them for the pur- 
poses of this act. Said mayor and aldermen and selectmen, 
between the first day of September and the thirty-first day of 
December of each succeeding year, shall renew such of said 
nails and spikes as shall have been destroyed or defaced ; and 
shall also designate, in the same manner as hereinbefore stated, 
such other trees as in their judgment should be so designated, 
to carry out the requirements of this act. Sts. 1891, ch. 49. 

§ 431. It shall be the duty of the mayor of each city and 
of the selectmen of each town of the Commonwealth to desig- 
nate some suitable person or persons, who shall serve without 



161 

compensation, and shall be other than the overseers of the 
poor or those employed by them, whose duty it shall be, under 
regulations established by the commissioners of state or mili- 
tary aid, to cause to be properly interred the body of any 
honorably discharged soldier, sailor, or marine who served in 
the army or navy of the United States during the late war 
who may hereafter die in such city or town without leaving 
sufficient means to defray funeral expenses. 

§ 432. The expense of such burial shall not exceed the 
sum of thirty-live dollars. Such burial shall not be made in 
any cemetery or burial-ground used exclusively for the burial 
of the pauper dead, or in that portion of any burial-ground so 
used : and provided, that in case relatives of the deceased who 
are unable to bear the expense of burial desire to conduct the 
funeral they may be allowed to do so and the expense shall 
be paid as herein provided. Sts. 1889, ch. 395, §§ 1, 2. 

FORMS. 
Warrant for calling the Annual Town Meeting. 

E , ss. To either of the Constables of the town of B , in 

said county. Greeting : 

In the name of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, you are 

directed to notify the inhabitants of the town of B qualified to 

vote in elections and in town affairs to meet at the Town Hall in 

said B , on the day of next, at o'clock in the 

forenoon, then and there to act on the following articles : — 

1. To choose a moderator to preside in said meeting. 

2. To choose all necessary town officers for the year ensuing. 

3. To hear the annual report of the selectmen, and act thereon. 

4. To raise such sums of money as maj' be necessary to defray town 
charges for the ensuing year, and make appropriations of the same. 

And you are directed to serve this warrant, by posting up attested 
copies thereof, one at the Town Hall, and one at each of the public 
meeting-houses in the said town, fourteen da} r s at least before 
the time for holding said meeting. The polls will open at 
o'clock, a. m., and close at o'clock, p. m. 

Hereof fail not, and make due return of this warrant, with your 
doings thereon, to the town clerk, at the time and place of meeting 
as aforesaid. 

Given under our hands this day of in the j'ear one thou- 
sand eight hundred and 

Selectmen ofB . 

11 



162 THE TOWN OFFICER 

Warrant for calling Town Meeting for voting for Governor etc. 

E , ss. To either of the Constables of the town of B , in 

said county, Greeting : 

In the name of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, you are re- 
quired to notify the inhabitants of the town of B , qualified to 

vote in elections, to meet at the Town Hall, in W , onTuesda} T , 

the day of November next, it being the Tuesday next after the 
first Monday of said month, at of the clock in noon, to 

bring in their votes for a governor and lieutenant-governor of the 
Commonwealth, and for senators, on one ballot, for the district of 
for the year ensuing. The polls will open at o'clock, 

a. m., and close at o'clock, p. m. 

And you are directed, etc. (as in the foregoing form). 

If to bring in Votes for Representative to Legislature of State. 

To bring in their votes on one ballot for a representative {or 
representatives, stating the number) from district number 
to the General Court. 

If for the choice of a Representative to Congress. 

To give their votes for a representative in the Congress of the 
United States, for the district. 

Notice to Selectmen to Perambulate Boundary Lines between 

Towns. 
To the Selectmen of the town of F . 

Gentlemen, — The subscribers, selectmen (or two of the select- 
men) of the town of B , hereby give notice that we shall meet 

at on the day of at of the clock in the 

noon, to perambulate and run the lines between the said towns, 
and renew the marks, according to the law of the Commonwealth : 
at which time and place you are hereby requested to attend for this 
service. 

B , the day of in the year 189 . 

Selectmen of B 

Appointment of Substitute to Perambulate Boundary Lines 
between Towns. 

To A. B. of We, the selectmen of the town of B , do 

hereby appoint 3 T ou to perambulate and run the dividing lines 



SELECTMEN, THEIR POWERS AND DUTIES. 163 

between said town and the town of and renew the marks ; and 

you are to make returns of your proceedings into the clerk's office 

of the town of B as soon as you have completed this service. 

Given under our hands this day of 189 . 

Selectmen of B 

CERTAIN LICENSES GRANTED BY SELECTMEN. 

(a) Innholders and Common Victuallers. 

§ 433. The selectmen of a town may grant licenses to per- 
sons to be innholders or common victuallers in such town. 
No such license shall be issued until it has been signed by 
a majority of the selectmen of the town in which it is 
granted. A selectman may refuse to sign a license to a person 
who in his opinion has not complied with the provisions of 
this chapter ; and any such officer who signs a license granted 
contrary to the provisions of this chapter shall be punished by 
fine not exceeding fifty dollars. 

§ 434. Every such license shall specify the street, lane, 
alley, or other place, and the number of the building, or give 
some other particular description thereof, where the person 
licensed shall exercise his employment ; and the license shall 
not protect a person exercising his employment in any other 
place than that so specified. Pub. Stats, ch. 102, §§ 2, 3. 

§ 435. The licenses of innholders and common victuallers, 
granted under the preceding sections shall expire on the thir- 
tieth day of April of each year ; but such licenses may be 
granted during the month of April, to take effect on the first 
day of May next ensuing. Sts. 1890, ch. 73. 

§ 436. No innholder's license shall be granted or issued to 
any person, unless at the time of making application therefor 
he has upon his premises the necessary implements and facil- 
ities for cooking, preparing, and serving food, rooms, beds, 
and bedding, and stable room and provender for horses and 
cattle. 

§ 437. No common victualler's license shall be granted or 
issued to any person, unless at the time of making application 
therefor he has upon his premises the necessary implements 
and facilities for cooking, preparing, and serving food for 
strangers and travellers. 



164 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

§ 438. If an innholder, when requested, refuses to receive 
and make suitable provision for a stranger or traveller, and 
also for his horses and cattle, when he may be legally required 
to do so under these sections, he shall be punished by fine not 
exceeding fifty dollars, and in addition shall forfeit his license. 
§ 439. If a common victualler, when requested, upon any 
other than the Lord's day, refuses to supply food to a stranger 
or traveller, he shall be punished by fine not exceeding fifty 
dollars ; and, in addition to said penalty, shall forfeit his 
license. 

§ 440. When in the opinion of the selectmen of a town, a 
person holding a license as an innholder or a common victualler 
ceases to be engaged in the business he is licensed to pursue, 
or fails to maintain upon his premises the implements and 
facilities required by these sections they shall immediately 
revoke his license. Pub. Stats, ch. 102, §§ 7-11. 

§ 441. No innholder, tavern-keeper, retailer, confectioner, 
or keeper of a shop or house for the sale of drink or food, or 
a livery-stable keeper for horse or carriage hire, shall give 
credit to a student in an incorporated academy or other edu- 
cational institution within this state. 

§ 442. No person shall be approved or licensed for either 
of the employments aforesaid, if it appears that he has given 
credit contrary to the provisions of the preceding section. 
Pub. Stats, ch. 102, §§ 21, 22. 

§ 443. Nothing contained in this chapter shall be construed 
to require the selectmen to grant either of the licenses afore- 
said, when in their opinion the public good does not require 
it. And when such license is granted, no fee shall be charged 
therefor. 

§ 444. The secretary of the Commonwealth shall cause a 
condensed summary of all laws relating- to innholders and 
common victuallers to be printed for the use of the state, and 
shall supply selectmen of towns therewith ; who shall at the 
time of granting a license furnish to each person licensed by 
them a copy of such summary. Pub. Stats, ch. 102, §§ 24, 25. 



SELECTMEN, THEIR POWERS AND DUTIES. 165 



(b) Intelligence Offices, 

§ 445. The selectmen of any town may grant licenses to 
suitable persons to keep intelligence offices, and may revoke 
the same at pleasure. They shall receive one dollar for each 
license so granted. 

(c) Junk, Old Metals, and Second-hand Articles. 

§ 446. The selectmen of any town, if by-laws therefor 
have been adopted in such town, may license suitable persons 
to be dealers in and keepers of shops for the purchase, sale, 
or barter of junk, old metals, or second-hand articles, in such 
town, and may revoke such licenses at pleasure. 

§ 447. A city or town may provide by ordinance or by-law 
that every keeper of a shop for the purchase, sale, or barter of 
junk, old metals, or second-hand articles, within its limits, 
shall keep a book, in which shall be written, at the time of 
every purchase of any such article, a description thereof, the 
name, age, and residence of the person from whom, and the 
day and hour when, such purchase was made ; that such book 
shall at all times be open to the inspection of the mayor and 
aldermen or selectmen, and of any person by them respectively 
authorized to make such inspection ; that every keeper of such 
shop shall put in some suitable and conspicuous place on his 
shop a sign having his name and occupation legibly inscribed 
thereon in large letters ; that such shop, and all articles of 
merchandise therein, may be at all times examined by the 
mayor and aldermen or selectmen, or by any person by them 
respectively authorized to make such examination ; and that 
no keeper of such shop shall directly or indirectly either pur- 
chase or receive by way of barter or exchange any of the 
articles aforesaid of a minor or apprentice, knowing or having 
reason to believe him to be such ; and that no article purchased 
or received shall be sold until a period of at least one week 
from the date of its purchase or receipt has elapsed. A city 
or town may also prescribe in like manner the hours in which 
such shops shall be closed, and that no keeper thereof shall 
purchase any of the articles aforesaid during such hours. 



166 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

§ 448. Every such rule, regulation, and restriction shall be 
incorporated in every such license. Pub. Stats, ch. 102, 
§§ 27-30. 

(d) Pawnbrokers. 

§ 449. The selectmen of any town, if by-laws therefor have 
been adopted in such town, may license suitable persons to 
carry on the business of pawnbrokers in such town, and may 
revoke such licenses at pleasure. Pub. Stats, ch. 102, § 32. 

§ 450. The board of officers licensing pawnbrokers in any 
place may fix the rate of interest which such pawnbrokers 
may receive on loans, and may fix different rates which may 
be received for different amounts of money lent; and no 
licensed pawnbroker shall charge or receive a greater rate of 
interest than that so fixed. 

§ 451. The selectmen of a town, or any officer authorized 
by them, may at any time enter upon any premises used by a 
licensed pawnbroker for the purposes of his business, ascertain 
how he conducts his business, and examine all articles taken 
in pawn or kept or stored in or upon said premises, and all 
books and inventories relating thereto ; and every such pawn- 
broker, his clerk, agent, servant, or other person in charge of 
the premises, shall exhibit to such officer on demand any or 
all of such articles, books, and inventories. Pub. Stats, ch. 
102, §§ 34, 35. 

(e) Stables. 

§ 452. Whoever occupies or uses a building in a maritime 
place for a livery stable, excepting such part thereof as the 
mayor and aldermen or selectmen direct, shall forfeit a sum 
not exceeding fifty dollars for every month he so occupies or 
uses such building, and in like proportion for a longer or 
shorter time. 

§ 453. Whoever erects, occupies, or uses a building for a 
stable for more than four horses in any part of a city or town, 
except such part as the mayor and aldermen or selectmen 
direct, shall forfeit a sum not exceeding fifty dollars for every 
month he so occupies or uses such building, and in like pro- 
portion for a longer or shorter time. And the supreme judi- 
cial court or a justice thereof, in term time or vacation, may 
issue an injunction to prevent such erection, occupancy, or 
use, without such direction. Pub. Stats, ch. 102, §§ 38, 39. 



SELECTMEN, THEIR POWERS AND DUTIES. 167 

(f) Steam-Engines , Furnaces, and Boilers. 

§ 454. No furnace for melting iron or making glass, and 
no stationary steam-engine designed for use in a mill for plan- 
ing or sawing boards or turning wood, or in which any other 
fuel than coal is used to create steam, shall be erected or put 
up to be used in a city or town which adopts this and the four 
following sections, or has adopted the corresponding sections of 
earlier statutes, at a legal meeting of the city council of the city 
or the inhabitants of the town called for that purpose, unless 
the mayor and aldermen or selectmen thereof have granted a 
license therefor, prescribing the place where the building shall be 
erected in which the steam-engine or furnace is to be used, and 
the materials and construction thereof, with such regulations as 
to the height of flues and protection against fire as they deem 
necessary for the safety of the neighborhood. Such license 
may be granted on a written application, and shall be recorded 
in the records of the city or town. Pub. Stats, ch. 102, § 40. 

The owner of a brick building in a city used as a manufac- 
tory of shoes, and situated within five hundred feet of a 
dwelling-house, was licensed by the board of aldermen of a 
city to " erect for use a stationary engine to be propelled by 
steam power at his shoe manufactory on P. Street." Held, 
that the license sufficiently complied with the provisions of 
this section. Alter v. Dodge, 140 Mass. 594. 

§ 455. Upon application for such license, the mayor and 
aldermen or selectmen shall assign a time and place for the 
consideration of the same, and cause at least fourteen days' 
public notice thereof to be given, at the expense of the appli- 
cant, in such manner as they may direct, in order that all per- 
sons interested may be heard thereon. 

§ 456. In a city or town which adopts the provisions in 
§§ 454-458, or has adopted the corresponding sections of earlier 
statutes, at a legal meeting of the city council of the city or 
the inhabitants of the town called for that purpose, the mayor 
and aldermen or selectmen, after' due notice in writing to the 
owner of such steam-engine or furnace, except for making 
glass, erected or in use therein before the time of such adop- 
tion, and a hearing of the matter, may adjudge the same to be 



168 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

dangerous or a nuisance to the neighborhood, and make and 
record an order prescribing such rules, restrictions, and alter- 
ations as to the building in which the same is constructed or 
used, the construction and height of its smoke-flues, with such 
other regulations as they deem necessary for the safety of the 
neighborhood ; and the city or town clerk shall deliver a copy 
of such order to a constable, who shall serve on the owner an 
attested copy thereof, and make return of his doings thereon 
to said clerk within three days from the delivery thereof to 
him. Pub. Stats, ch. 102, §§ 41, 42. 

§ 457. No stationary engine, propelled by steam or other 
motive-power, shall be hereafter erected or put up for use in a 
city or town in which this section or chapter seventy-four of 
the statutes of the year eighteen -hundred and sixty-two has 
been adopted in the manner which is stated in § 454 ante, 
within five hundred feet of a dwelling-house or public build- 
ing, unless a license therefor has been first granted and 
recorded in the manner herein provided. Pub. Stats, ch. 102, 
§47. 

The adoption of this statute must be at a meeting of the 
inhabitants of a town called for the purpose. Quinn v. Lowell 
Electric Light Co. 140 Mass. 106. 

§ 458. A steam-engine or furnace erected or used contrary 
to the provisions of the four preceding sections shall be deemed 
a common nuisance ; and the mayor and aldermen or select- 
men may remove the same in the same manner as boards of 
health may remove nuisances. 

§ 459. The selectmen of a town, or any person by them 
authorized, may, after notice to the parties interested, examine 
any steam-engine or steam-boiler therein, whether fixed or 
portable ; and for that purpose may enter any house, shop, or 
building ; and if upon such examination it appears probable 
that the use of such engine or boiler is unsafe, they may issue 
a temporary order to suspend such use ; and if after giving 
the parties interested, so far as known, an opportunity to be 
heard, they adjudge such engine or boiler unsafe or defective 
or unfit to be used, they may pass a permanent order prohib- 
iting the use thereof until it is rendered safe. If after notice 
to the owner or person having charge thereof, such engine or 



SELECTMEN, THEIR POWERS AND DUTIES. 169 

boiler is used contrary to either of such orders, it shall be 
deemed a common nuisance, without any other proof thereof 
than its use. 

§ 460. The selectmen may abate and remove a steam-engine 
or steam-boiler erected or used contrary to the provisions of 
the preceding section in the same manner as boards of health 
may remove nuisances. Pub. Stats, ch. 102, §§ 48-50. 

(g) Explosive Compounds. 

§ 461. The city council of any city and any town may 
make ordinances and by-laws, not inconsistent with the provi- 
sions hereof, for the protection of life and property, in regard 
to the keeping, storage, use, manufacture, or sale of explosive 
compounds, and may regulate the transportation thereof 
through the streets or highways of such city or town, and 
affix penalties not exceeding fifty dollars for each violation 
thereof. 

§ 462. The mayor and aldermen and the selectmen respect- 
ively may license, upon such terms as may be prescribed in such 
ordinances or by-laws, the keeping, storage, transportation, 
use, manufacture, or sale of explosive compounds, within the 
limits of such city or town. Pub. Stats, ch. 102, §§ 60, 61. 

§ 463. The city council of any city, and the selectmen of 
any town, may adopt such rules and regulations as they may 
deem reasonable in relation to the sale or use, within the 
limits thereof, of toy pistols, toy cannon, and all other articles 
in which explosive compounds of any kind are used, or of 
which such compounds form a part, and may affix penalties 
for violation of such rules and regulations, not exceeding fifty 
dollars for any one offence ; but no such rule or regulation 
shall take effect until it has been approved by the superior 
court, or in vacation by a justice thereof, and with such ap- 
proval entered and recorded in the manner stated in § 24 
ante. Stats. 1882, ch. 272. 

§ 464. The words " explosive compound," as used in this 
chapter, shall be understood to include gun-cotton, nitro- 
glycerine, or any compound of the same, and any fulminate 
or substance, except gunpowder, which is intended to be used 
by exploding or igniting the same, in order to produce a force 



170 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

to propel missiles or to rend apart substances. Pub. Stats. 
ch. 102, § Q8. 

(h) Billiard Tables, and Bowling Alleys. 

§ 465. The selectmen of any town may grant a license to 
any person to keep a billiard, pool, or sippio table, or a bowl- 
ing alley, for hire, gain, or reward, upon such terms and 
conditions as they deem proper, to be used for amusement 
merely, but not for the purpose of gaming for money or other 
property, subject to the provisions stated in §§ 467-470 post, 
and may revoke the same at pleasure. Pub Stats, ch 102, 

§ HI- 

§ 466. The provisions stated in § 453 ante shall apply to 
the erection, occupancy, or use of buildings for bowling alleys 
in any town. Pub. Stats, ch. 102, § 114. 

§ 467. Licenses granted to keepers of intelligence offices, 
dealers in junk, old metals, and second-hand articles, pawn- 
brokers, and keepers of billiard-saloons, pool or sippio rooms 
or tables, and bowling alleys, shall be signed by the clerk of 
the city or town in which they are granted, and every such 
license shall be recorded by the clerk of the city or town, in a 
book kept for that purpose, before being delivered to the 
licensee ; such license shall set forth the name of the person 
licensed, the nature of the business, and the building or place 
in such city or town in which it is to be carried on, and shall 
continue in force until the first day of May next ensuing, 
unless sooner revoked. The board issuing such a license 
shall be entitled to receive two dollars for each license, for the 
use of the city or town. 

§ 468. Such licenses may be granted during the month of 
April, to take effect on the first day of May then next ensuing. 

§ 469. No license issued as aforesaid shall be valid to pro- 
tect the holder thereof in a building or place other than that 
designated in the license, unless consent to removal is granted 
by the mayor and aldermen or selectmen. 

§ 470. When such a license is revoked, such clerk shall 
note the revocation upon the face of the record of the license, 
and shall give written notice to the holder of the license by 
delivering the same to him in person or leaving it at the place 



SELECTMEN, THEIR POWERS AND DUTIES. 171 

of business designated in the license. Pub. Stats, ch. 102, 
§§ 124-127. 

(i) Theatrical Exhibitions and Public Shows. 

§ 471. The mayor and aldermen of a city or the selectmen 
of a town may, except as provided in section nine of chapter 
forty-eight of the Public Statutes, license theatrical exhibitions, 
public shows, public amusements, and exhibitions of every 
description, to which admission is obtained upon payment of 
money or the delivery of any valuable thing, or by a ticket or 
voucher obtained for money or any valuable thing, upon such 
terms and conditions as they deem reasonable ; and they may 
revoke or suspend the same at their pleasure. Pub. Stats. 
ch. 102, §115. 

(j) Fishing Associations. 

§ 472. A fishing association, before purchasing and hold- 
ing real estate or doing any acts in pursuance of its organiza- 
tion, shall obtain written authority from the selectmen of the 
town within which its works are to be located. Pub. Stats. 
ch. 106, § 74. 

(k) Race- Grounds and Trotting -Parks. 

§ 473. No land within a city or town shall be laid out or 
used as a race-ground or trotting-park without the previous 
consent of and location by the mayor and aldermen or select- 
men, who may regulate and alter the terms and conditions 
under which the same shall be laid out, used, or continued in 
use, and may discontinue the same when in their judgment 
the public good so requires ; and no land shall be used for 
any of the following purposes : all racing, running, trotting, 
or pacing of a horse or other animal of the horse kind for a 
bet or wager of money or other valuable thing, or for a purse 
or stake, made within this state, except trials of the speed of 
horses for premiums offered by legally constituted agricultural 
societies. Pub. Stats, ch. 209, § 12. 

(1) Steamboats on Inland Waters. 

§ 474. The mayor and aldermen of a city or the selectmen 
of a town may license any person to run a steamboat for the 



172 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

conveyance of passengers on lakes, ponds, or waters not within 
the maritime jurisdiction of the United States. 

§ 475. Such licenses shall be granted for a term not ex- 
ceeding one year, and shall be recorded by the clerk of the 
city or town in which they are granted, who shall receive a 
fee of one dollar for recording each license. Every such 
license shall set forth the name of the vessel and of the 
master and owner, and the number of passengers such vessel 
is permitted to carry at any one time, and shall be posted in 
a conspicuous place thereon, and the number of passengers 
specified in such license shall in no case be exceeded. Pub. 
Stats, ch. 102, §§ 120, 121. 

(m) Skating Rinks and Picnic Groves. 

§ 476. The selectmen of any town may grant a license to 
any person to establish, keep open, and maintain a skating rink 
to be used for the amusement of roller skating for hire, upon 
such terms, conditions, and regulations as they deem proper, 
subject to the provisions in §§ 467-470 ante ; and they may 
grant a license to any person to establish, let, keep open, and 
maintain a grove to be used for picnics or other lawful gath- 
erings and amusements, for hire, upon such conditions and 
regulations as they deem proper, subject to the provisions 
of the said sections. Sts. 1885, chs. 196, 309. 

DUTIES OF SELECTMEN WITH REGARD TO RAILROADS. 

(a) Fixing of the Route. 

§ 477. The directors shall submit the map and report of 
the proposed railroad to the mayor and aldermen of every 
city and to the selectmen of every town named in the articles 
of association ; and such mayor and aldermen or selectmen 
shall thereupon appoint a place and time for a hearing, of 
which notice shall be given by publication in one or more 
newspapers published in the county for two successive weeks, 
the last publication to be at least two days prior to the hear- 
ing, and by posting copies of the notice in two or more public 
places in the city or town at least two weeks before such 
hearing. 



SELECTMEN, THEIR POWERS AND DUTIES. 173 

§ 478. When the mayor and aldermen of a city or the 
selectmen of a town named in the articles of association, 
after such notice, exhibition of the map, and hearing, agree 
with the directors as to the proposed route or as to any route 
of their railroad in said city or town, such agreement shall 
fix the same ; and said mayor and aldermen or selectmen shall 
sign and give to the directors a certificate setting forth such 
route. Pub. Stats, ch. 112, §§ 39, 40. 

§ 479. The route fixed under the preceding section may 
include such spurs, branches, and connecting and terminal 
tracks, in any city or town, as may be necessary to enable the 
corporation conveniently to collect and deliver passengers and 
freight therein; but no such branch, spur, or connecting or 
terminal track shall be laid longitudinally within the limits of 
a public way without the consent of the mayor and aldermen 
or the selectmen, who in giving such consent may impose such 
conditions as to the location, construction, and use thereof 
as may be agreed upon between themselves and the directors. 
Corporations owning or operating any such tracks so laid 
longitudinally in a public way shall, in respect to the same, be 
liable to the city or town for all loss or damage caused thereto 
by the construction and use of such tracks, and by the negli- 
gence or default of the agents or workmen of such corporations 
thereon. Pub. Stats, ch. 112, § 42. 

(b) Examination of Condition of Road. 

§ 480. Upon the complaint and application of the mayor 
and aldermen of a city or the selectmen of a town within 
which a part of any railroad is located, the board of railroad 
commissioners shall examine the condition and operation 
thereof ; and if twenty or more legal voters in a city or town, 
by petition in writing, request the mayor and aldermen or select- 
men to make such complaint and application, and they decline 
so to do, they shall indorse upon the petition the reason of such 
non-compliance and return it to the petitioners, who may 
within ten days thereafter present it to said board ; and the 
board may thereupon proceed to make such examination in the 
same manner as if called upon by the mayor and aldermen or 
the selectmen, first giving to the petitioners and to the cor- 



174 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

poration reasonable notice in writing of the time and place of 
entering upon the same. If upon such examination it appears 
to the board that the complaint is well founded, it shall so 
adjudge, and shall inform the corporation operating such rail- 
road of its adjudication in the same manner as is provided in 
section sixteen of chapter one hundred and twelve of the 
Public Statutes. Pub. Stats, ch. 112, § 17. 

(c) Railroad Police. 

§ 481. The mayor and aldermen of a city or the selectmen 
of a town, upon the petition of a railroad corporation having a 
passenger station therein, or of a common carrier of passen- 
gers by water for hire having a usual place of receiving or 
discharging passengers therein, may appoint as many as they 
may deem proper of the 'persons in the employment of said 
petitioner as police officers for the purposes and with the 
powers hereinafter set forth. 

§ 482. A copy of the record of all such appointments shall 
be filed by the petitioner with the clerk of each place in which 
such corporation draws cars by its own motive-power, or such 
carrier is accustomed to receive or discharge passengers, and in 
which it is intended that such police shall act ; and the filing 
of such copy shall constitute the persons named therein rail- 
road or steamboat police, respectively, within such towns or 
cities, and upon the boats or vessels of such carriers by water 
while within the boundaries of the Commonwealth. Pub. 
Stats, ch. 103, §§ 13, 14. 

AUCTIONEERS, HAWKERS, AND PEDLERS. 

(a) Auctioneers. 
§ 483. The mayor and aldermen or selectmen of any city 
or town may, by writing under their hands, license one or 
more suitable persons who have resided in their respective 
cities and towns for a period of six months before application 
is made for such license, to be auctioneers within the same 
for the term of one year, and may receive to the use of the 
city or town for each license two dollars. They shall record 
every license in a book to be kept by them for that purpose. 
Sts. 1886, ch. 289. 



175 

§ 484. Each auctioneer shall, if required, give bonds in a 
reasonable penal sum and with sufficient sureties to the treas- 
urer of the city or town where he is licensed, with condition 
that he shall in all things conform to the laws relating to 
auctioneers. Pub. Stats, ch. 67, § 3. 

§ 485. Licenses may be granted upon such conditions 
respecting the places of selling goods and chattels within a 
city or town as the mayor and aldermen or selectmen deem 
expedient ; and if an auctioneer makes a sale by auction at a 
place not authorized by his license, he shall be liable to like 
penalties as if he had sold without a license. Pub. Stats, ch. 
67, § 12. 

(b) Hawkers and Pedlers. 

§ 486. Any person may go about from town to town, or 
from place to place in the same town, exposing for sale and 
selling fruits, provisions, live animals, brooms, agricultural 
implements, hand tools used in making boots and shoes, fuel, 
newspapers, books, pamphlets, agricultural products of the 
United States, and the products of his own labor or of the 
labor of his family ; but nothing in this section shall be so 
construed as to include among the things that may be so ex- 
posed for sale or sold any articles of the growth or production 
of foreign countries. Pub. Stats, ch. 68, § 1. 

§ 487. The selectmen of a town may make regulations 
prohibiting or regulating and providing for issuing licenses 
for the sale by minors of any goods, wares, or merchandise, 
the sale of which is permitted by the preceding section ; such 
licenses to be issued on the terms and conditions prescribed 
in such regulations. Any minor who shall sell any such 
articles without a license, when one is required, or who shall 
violate any such regulation or any of the terms or conditions 
of any such license, shall be punished by a fine not exceeding 
ten dollars for each offence. Sts. 1892, ch. 331. 

§ 488. The majority of the selectmen of a town in which 
a hawker wishes to sell goods, may sign a certificate for him 
stating that he is of good morals and integrity, and that he 
is, or has declared his intention of becoming, a citizen of the 
United States, which facts he must previously have made oath 
to before a justice of the peace. On being shown this cer- 



176 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

tificate, the secretary of the Commonwealth may grant the 
applicant a license to sell goods in that town, on being paid 
the proper fee, which shall go to the treasurer of the town in 
which the hawker sells his goods. Pub. Stats, ch. 68, §§ 4-6. 
§ 489. Every person licensed to peddle as hereinbefore 
provided shall post his name, residence, and the number of his 
license in a conspicuous manner upon his parcels or vehicle ; 
and when his license is demanded of him by a mayor, alder- 
man, selectman, town or city treasurer or clerk, constable, 
police officer, or justice of the peace, he shall forthwith exhibit 
it, and, if he neglects or refuses so to do, shall be subject to 
the same penalty as if he had no license. This chapter, or a 
synopsis thereof, shall be printed on every license. Pub. 
Stats, ch. 68, S 13. 



FIRES, FIRE DEPARTMENTS, AND FIRE DISTRICTS. 

(a) Extinguishment of Fires. 

§ 490. The selectmen of a town may annually, in March 
or April, appoint such number of suitable persons to be fire- 
wards as they deem necessary ; and each person so appointed 
shall forthwith have notice thereof, and within seven days 
after such notice shall enter with the town clerk his accept- 
ance or refusal of the office. Whoever neglects so to enter 
his acceptance or refusal shall, unless excused by the select- 
men, forfeit ten dollars. 

§ 491. When a fire breaks out in any place, the firewards 
shall immediately repair thereto, and shall carry a suitable 
staff or badge of their office. Pub. Stats, ch. 35, §§ 1, 2. 

§ 492. The firewards, or any three of them present at a 
place in immediate danger from a fire, or,- where no firewards 
are appointed, the selectmen or mayor and aldermen present, 
or in their absence two or more of the civil officers present, 
or in their absence two or more of the chtef military officers 
of the place present, may direct any house or building to be 
pulled down or demolished when they judge the same to be 
necessary in order to prevent the spreading of the fire. Pub. 
Stats, ch. 35, § 3. 



SELECTMEN, THEIR POWERS AND DUTIES. 177 

One fi reward has no more authority than any other person 
to direct the destruction of a house to prevent the spreading 
of a conflagration, although it may be impossible for the other 
firewards or the other officers named in the statute to get to 
the place when the occasion for action upon the subject 
arises. Parson v. Petting ell , 11 Allen, 507. 

§ 493. In towns which, by vote of the legal voters respec- 
tively, have accepted the provisions of this section, or of 
chapter two hundred and one of the statutes of the year 
eighteen hundred and seventy-three, the engineer of a fire 
department in command at a fire shall, to the exclusion of all 
other persons, have the power conferred by the preceding 
section. Pub. Stats, ch. 35, § 4. 

§ 494. If such pulling down or demolishing of a house or 
building is the means of stopping the fire, or if the fire stops 
before it comes to the same, the owner shall be entitled to 
recover a reasonable compensation from the city or town ; but 
when such building is that in which the fire first broke out, 
the owner shall receive no compensation. Pub. Stats, ch. 
35, § 5. 

" The plain intent of the statute is, that no house or build- 
ing shall be demolished unless it shall be judged necessary by 
three firewards, or by the other officers authorized to act in 
their absence or where no firewards have been appointed. It 
is a joint authority expressly given to the officers designated, 
acting together, and cannot be exercised by a minority or by 
any one of them. It is not sufficient, therefore, that a gen- 
eral conclusion or judgment was arrived at by three firewards, 
or the other officers mentioned, that it was necessary to destroy 
some buildings in order to put a stop to the further extension 
of a fire. They must go further. They must determine upon 
the particular house or building which they shall adjudge 
necessary to be destroyed for the purpose. This cannot be left 
to the individual judgment of any of the firewards." Bigelow, 
J., in Ruggles v. Inhabitants of Nantucket, 11 Cush. 433. 

The provision of this section does not apply to a building 
which is pulled down by such order, after it is so far burnt 
that it is impossible to save it from destruction by fire. Taylor 
v. Plymouth, 8 Met. 462. 

12 



178 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

§ 495. Such firewards or other officers may, during the 
continuance of a fire, require assistance for extinguishing the 
same, and for removing furniture, goods, or merchandise from 
a building on fire or in danger thereof; and may appoint 
guards to secure the same. They may also require assistance 
for pulling down or demolishing a house or building when 
they judge it necessary; and may suppress all tumults and 
disorders at such fire. 

§ 496. They may direct the stations and operations of the 
enginemen with their engines, and of all other persons for the 
purpose of extinguishing the fire ; and whoever refuses or 
neglects to obey such orders shall forfeit for each offence a 
sum not exceeding ten dollars. Pub. Stats, ch. 35, §§ 6, 7. 

§ 497. When a fire occurs in woodlands, the firewards, or 
any two of them, of a town in which woods are burning, or of 
a town containing woodlands endangered by such fire, being 
present at a place in immediate danger of being burned over, 
may direct such back fires to be set and maintained, and such 
other precautions to be taken to prevent the spread of the fire, 
as they may deem necessary. Pub. Stats, ch. 35, § 9. 

§ 498. A city or town in which an aqueduct is situated 
may put conductors into the pipes for the purpose of drawing 
therefrom, free of expense, as much water as is necessary 
when a building is on fire therein, if such conductors are so 
secured that water shall not be drawn therefrom except for 
the purpose of extinguishing fires. 

§ 499. When the selectmen consider it necessary for the 
protection against fire of persons and property in their town 
to take water from the conductors or pipes therein of an aque- 
duct corporation, they may order the engineers of the fire 
department to request the corporation to put into such conduc- 
tors or pipes, in such places as said engineers shall think 
necessary, connections or conductors for the purpose of attach- 
ing hydrants or conducting water into reservoirs. Pub. Stats. 
ch. 110, §§ 15, 16. 

(b) Forest Firewards. 

§ 500. In all towns it shall be the duty of the selectmen to 
appoint annually, in March or April, one or more persons to be 



SELECTMEN, THEIR POWERS AND DUTIES. 179 

called forest firewards, who shall, in respect to fires in wood- 
lands, have and exercise the powers prescribed for firewards 
in the preceding sections. In towns of less than three hundred 
voters, the selectmen may serve as forest firewards if the towns 
shall so elect. 

§ 501. It shall be the duty of forest firewards to post 
copies of chapter 163 of the Acts of 1882, and of this Act 
(Sts. 1886, ch. 296) in two or more public places, to investigate 
all cases of fires in woodlands and report thereon to the select- 
men of the town, who in their discretion shall cause complaints 
to be made for violation of the provisions hereof. Sts. 1886, 
ch. 296, §§ 2, 3. 

(c) Enginemen and Hosemen. 

§ 502. The mayor and aldermen or selectmen of places 
provided with fire-engines may appoint suitable persons for 
enginemen, who shall continue in office during the pleasure of 
the authority appointing them. 

§ 503. Such engines shall be manned as follows : each com- 
mon engine, or suction engine when used as a common engine 
only, with not exceeding thirty men ; each suction engine, 
when used as such, with not exceeding forty-five men ; but 
this provision shall not affect the present right of any place to 
have a greater number of enginemen appointed than is herein 
prescribed. 

§ 504. The mayor and aldermen or selectmen may select 
from the enginemen any number for each engine, who shall 
under the direction of the firewards attend fires with axes, 
fire-hooks, fire-sails, and ladders, and do such further duty as 
the mayor and aldermen or selectmen shall from time to time 
prescribe ; and they shall be entitled to all the exemptions 
and privileges of other enginemen. 

§ 505. Each company of enginemen so appointed shall 
meet annually in May and choose a foreman, or director, and 
a clerk, and shall establish such rules and regulations, not 
repugnant to law, respecting their duty as enginemen, as shall 
be approved by the mayor and aldermen or selectmen ; and 
they shall annex penalties thereto not exceeding ten dollars, 
which may be recovered by their clerk in an action of tort. 



180 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

§ 506. Each company shall meet together once a month, 
and oftener if necessary, for the purpose of examining their 
engine and its appendages and seeing that they are in good 
repair and ready for use. They shall by night and day, under 
the direction of the firewards, use their best endeavors to 
extinguish any fire that may happen in their city or town, or 
in the vicinity thereof. 

§ 507. When the proprietors of an engine apply to the 
mayor and aldermen or selectmen of a city or town in which 
the engine is owned, setting forth that they desire that the 
same should be employed for the benefit of such place, the 
mayor and aldermen or selectmen may appoint enginemen in 
the same manner, with the same privileges, and subject to the 
same regulations, as if the engine belonged to the place ; and 
if the proprietors do not agree as to the place where the 
engine shall be kept, the mayor and aldermen or selectmen 
shall determine such place. 

§ 508. If the mayor and aldermen or selectmen upon such 
application refuse or delay for the space of fourteen days so 
to appoint enginemen, the proprietors may apply therefor in 
writing to the county commissioners, giving notice in writing 
to such mayor and aldermen or selectmen seven days at least 
before the sitting of the commissioners, that they may appear 
and show cause, if any they have, why such enginemen should 
not be appointed; and if sufficient cause is not shown by 
them, the commissioners may appoint the number of engine- 
men prescribed in § 503 ante. 

§ 509. Enginemen appointed under the two preceding sec- 
tions shall, if such can be obtained, be persons living at or 
near the place where the engine is kept, and they shall enjoy 
all the privileges and exemptions of other enginemen. 

§ 510. Selectmen, engineers of fire departments, and the 
board of engineers of fire districts, may, in towns having one 
or more steam fire-engines or in which water for extinguishing 
fires is supplied from hydrants or reservoirs, appoint to each 
hose-carriage such number of men, not exceeding twenty, as 
they deem expedient. 

§ 511. If an engineman is negligent in his duties, the 
mayor and aldermen or selectmen shall discharge him and 
appoint another in his stead. 



SELECTMEN, THEIR POWERS AND DUTIES. 181 

§ 512. Persons appointed enginemen or members of the 
fire department in any town, and who have done duty as such 
for one year preceding the first day of May in any year, shall 
be entitled to receive from the treasurers of their respective 
towns a sum equal to the poll-tax for state and county taxes 
paid by them, or by their parents, masters, or guardians, and 
such further compensation as the town determines. 

§ 513. The chief engineer or other officer who holds the 
first office in a fire department, and the foreman or director of 
each company in a place where no fire department is estab- 
lished by law, shall annually on or before the first day of May 
make out and certify to the assessors of their respective places 
a list of all persons in their department or companies who 
through the year preceding have performed all the duties 
therein required by law. The assessors shall within ten days 
thereafter examine such lists and certify to the treasurers of 
their respective places the amount to be paid to each person 
named therein. Such treasurers shall, after deducting all taxes 
due from the persons so named, pay the amount so certified to 
them, or, if minors, to their parents, masters, or guardians ; 
and upon refusal of the treasurer to pay any sums so certified 
and returned, the person entitled may recover such sum in an 
action of contract. 

§ 514. If such chief engineer or other officer wilfully 
refuses to make such certificate, he shall forfeit for each per- 
son whose name ought to have been so certified a sum not 
exceeding five dollars, to be recovered in an action of tort to the 
use of such person, or on complaint to the use of the county ; 
and if such engineer or other officer makes a false certificate 
in such case, he shall forfeit not less than twenty nor more than 
fifty dollars, to be recovered in an action of tort to the use of 
the city or town, or on complaint to the use of the county. 

§ 515. The provisions of the three preceding sections shall 
be in force only in those cities and towns which adopt the same 
by vote of their city council or at their annual town meeting, 
or which have so adopted the provisions of sections eighteen, 
nineteen, and twenty of chapter twenty-four of the General 
Statutes. When such adoption is revoked by the city council, 
or by the town at an annual meeting, said provisions shall 
cease to be in force therein. Pub. Stats, ch. 35, §§ 12-25. 



182 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

(d) Fire Departments. 

§ 516. The selectmen of a town may establish a fire depart- 
ment therein in the manner hereinafter provided, and such 
department and every other fire department, unless different 
provisions are specially made therefor, shall be organized in the 
manner, and the members thereof may exercise the powers, 
and shall be subject to the liabilities, hereinafter mentioned. 
Pub. Stats, ch. 35, § 28. 

§ 517. Every town having a fire department is required 
to keep the following apparatus for saving life at fires, and to 
take them to fires occurring in buildings over two stories in 
height : first, a device capable of shooting a missile with a 
cord attached over the top of any building in town ; second, 
a " chute " made of uninflammable canvas; third, a " lifenet." 
Sts. 1888, ch. 310. 

§ 518. The selectmen of such town shall annually in April 
appoint for such department as many engineers, not exceeding 
twelve, as they may think expedient, for the term of one year 
from the first day of May following, and until others are 
appointed in their stead, but the selectmen may, for cause, 
remove from office any engineer, after seven days notice to 
him and hearing ; and the selectmen shall fill all vacancies. 
Sts. 1886, ch. 113. 

§ 519. They shall immediately after such appointment 
issue a notice to each of said engineers to meet at a time and 
place designated in the notice, at which meeting the engineers 
shall choose a chief engineer, a clerk, and such other officers 
as they may deem necessary for their complete organization. 

§ 520. The engineers, in relation to the extinguishment of 
fires, shall exercise the powers of fire wards, and in relation to 
the nomination and appointment of enginemen shall exercise 
the powers and perform the duties of selectmen. They may 
appoint such number of men to the engines, hose, hook, ladder, 
and sail carriages, and to constitute fire companies for secur- 
ing property endangered by fire, as they may think expedient ; 
but the number of men appointed shall not exceed, to each 
suction fire-engine, fifty ; to each common engine, thirty-five ; 
to each hose-carriage, except as provided for by § 510 ante., 



SELECTMEN, THEIR POWERS AND DUTIES. 183 



five ; to each hook-and-ladder and sail carriage, twenty-five ; 
and to each fire company, twenty-five. 

§ 521. The engine, hose, hook-and-ladder, and sail carriage 
men, and fire companies may organize themselves into distinct 
companies, elect the necessary officers, and establish such 
rules, regulations, and by-laws as may be approved by the 
board of engineers ; and may annex penalties for the breach 
of the same, not exceeding ten dollars for each offence ; and 
the same may be recovered by the clerk to the use of the 
company in an action of tort. 

§ 522. The engineers and all persons appointed by them 
shall be subject to the same duties and liabilities, and entitled 
to the same privileges and exemptions, as enginemen appointed 
by selectmen. 

§ 523. The board of engineers shall have the care and 
superintendence of the public engines, hose, fire-hooks, ladder- 
carriages, and ladders in their respective towns, together with 
the buildings, fixtures, and appendages belonging thereto, and 
with all pumps, reservoirs for water, and apparatus owned by 
the town and used for extinguishing fires; and shall cause 
the same to be kept in repair, and when worn out to be re- 
placed ; and shall, from time to time, make such alterations 
therein and additions thereto as they may deem necessary ; 
but such alterations, additions, or repairs shall not in any one 
year exceed one hundred dollars, unless the town has authorized 
a larger appropriation. 

§ 524. They may at any meeting establish such rules and 
regulations as they judge proper, to prohibit or regulate the 
carrying of fire, firebrands, lighted matches, or other ignited 
materials, openly in the streets or thoroughfares of their town, 
or of such parts thereof as they may designate ; or to prohibit 
owners or occupants of buildings within their town, or such 
part thereof as they may designate, from erecting or main- 
taining any defective chimney, hearth, oven, stove, or stove- 
pipe, fire-frame, or other fixture, deposit of ashes, or mixture 
or other material which may produce spontaneous combustion, 
or whatever else may give just cause of alarm or be the means 
of kindling or spreading fire. 

§ 525. They may make rules and regulations, not repug- 



184 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

nant to law, for their own government and for the conduct of 
citizens at fires, and may annex penalties for the breach 
thereof, not exceeding twenty dollars for one offence ; any 
such penalty may be recovered by the chief engineer in an 
action of tort, and shall be appropriated by the engineers to 
the improvement of the fire apparatus of their town ; but such 
rules and regulations shall not be binding until approved by 
the inhabitants of the town at a meeting held for the purpose, 
and published as the town may direct. 

§ 526. No act hereafter passed establishing a fire depart- 
ment in a town shall take effect until it is accepted and 
approved by the inhabitants of such town at a meeting held 
for the purpose. 

§ 527. A city or town which has established a fire depart- 
ment may by vote of the city council in such city, or of the 
inhabitants of such town at a meeting called for the purpose, 
fix the term of office for the engineers, enginemen, and other 
members of such department, to begin at a future day, and to 
end in one year from such day, and so on from year to year. 
In such cases all provisions of this chapter referring to the 
month of May shall be construed to refer to the first month 
of the year thus appointed. 

§ 528. For the purposes of the preceding section^ a city or 
town may, at the same time, abridge or protract the current 
term of office of engineers, enginemen, and other members of 
fire departments; but no term shall be made shorter than six 
or longer than eighteen months, and the incumbents of such 
offices shall hold office until others are appointed in their 
stead. 

(e) Fire Districts. 

§ 529. Fire departments may be established in districts 
containing not less than one thousand inhabitants, the officers 
of which shall have charge of and be responsible for the 
engines and other apparatus for the extinguishment of fire 
therein, in the same manner as firewards and enginemen of 
towns. 

§ 530. Before a district is constituted and organized, a 
petition shall be presented to the town at a legal meeting, 



SELECTMEN, THEIR POWERS AND DUTIES. 185 

stating the limits of the proposed district, and requesting the 
town to raise taxes for the establishment and maintenance of 
a sufficient fire department for the reasonable protection from 
fire of the inhabitants and property within said limits. If the 
town refuses or neglects so to do, the inhabitants of the pro- 
posed district may proceed to constitute and organize the 
same, and to establish a fire department therein, as hereinafter 
provided. 

§ 531. The selectmen, upon the application in writing of 
not less than seven freeholders, inhabitants of such proposed 
district, setting forth the limits thereof, and requiring them 
to notify a meeting of the inhabitants thereof duly qualified 
to vote in town affairs, for the purpose of considering the 
expediency of organizing such district and establishing a fire 
department, shall forthwith give notice to such inhabitants, 
in the manner of notifying town meetings, to assemble at 
some suitable place within the district for said purpose, the 
substance of which shall be expressed in the notification. If 
the selectmen refuse or neglect to notify such meeting, a 
justice of the peace may notify the same. 

§ 532. If at any such meeting the voters present determine 
to organize such district, they shall choose a clerk, who shall 
be sworn. He may be removed by the district, or may resign, 
and in case of a vacancy another may be chosen ; or in such 
case, and in case of any disability in such clerk to perform 
the duties required by law, the selectmen of the town wherein 
such fire district is situated may appoint a clerk pro tempore, 
who shall be sworn and shall perform such duties until the 
vacancy is filled or the disability is removed. 

§ 533. The district at such meeting may vote to establish 
a fire department, to consist of a chief engineer, and as many 
assistant engineers, enginemen,hosemen, and hook-and-ladder 
men, as they may deem necessary, not exceeding, for each 
suction engine, seventy-five ; for each common engine, thirty- 
five ; for each one hundred and fifty feet of leading hose kept 
for use within the district, five ; and not exceeding twenty -five 
hook-and-ladder men. Each of said officers and members shall 
be furnished with a certificate under the hands of the chief 
engineer and clerk, declaring his station in the department. 



186 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

§ 534. The chief engineer and assistant engineers shall be 
chosen annually by the district, and shall be sworn. 

§ 535. Meetings of the district shall be called by the clerk, 
when requested in writing by the chief engineer, or by two 
assistant engineers, or by seven voters of the district ; and he 
shall give notice of the same by posting written notifications 
in at least six public places in the district not less than seven 
days prior to the meeting, or by publishing the same in a 
newspaper, if one is printed in the town where the district is 
situated, which notifications shall briefly state the purposes of 
the meeting. At each of the meetings a moderator shall be 
chosen, who shall have the powers of the moderator of a town 
meeting. After the choice of a clerk, he shall preside at 
subsequent meetings with like powers until a moderator is 
chosen. 

§ 536. The selectmen of towns containing fire districts 
shall, at least ten days before the annual fire-district election, 
make correct alphabetical lists of all the persons qualified to 
vote in such election ; shall cause such lists to be posted up in 
two or more public places in said district ; and shall perform 
the same duties in reference to the correction of said lists, as 
they are required by law to perform in reference to the correc- 
tion of check-lists for town elections. 

§ 537. In fire districts composed of portions of two or 
more towns, the duties required of the selectmen by the pre- 
ceding section shall be performed by the prudential committee. 
Pub. Stats, ch. 35, §§ 30-48. 

§ 538. The polls at fire-district elections shall be kept open 
not less than two and not more than six hours. 

§ 539. Such districts may, at meetings called for the pur- 
pose, raise money for the purchase of engines and other 
articles necessary for the extinguishment of fires, for the 
purchase of land, for the erection and repairs of necessary 
buildings, for the erection and maintenance of street lamps 
within their limits, and for other incidental expenses of the 
fire department. They shall chose a prudential committee, 
which shall expend for the purposes prescribed by the district 
the money so raised. 

§ 540. Such districts shall also choose a treasurer, who 



187 

shall give bond for the faithful discharge of the duties of his 
office in such sum as the prudential committee may require, 
and with sureties to their satisfaction. The treasurer shall 
receive all sums of money belonging to the district, and shall 
pay over and account for the same according to its order, or 
to the order of the prudential committee. 

§ 541. When the treasurer is prevented from performing 
the duties of his office, or when his office is vacant, the pru- 
dential committee may in writing appoint a treasurer pro 
tempore, who shall give a bond in like manner as provided in 
the preceding section, and shall hold his office until another is 
chosen. 

§ 542. The clerk shall certify to the assessors of the town 
all votes of the district authorizing interest to be added to 
taxes, and all sums of money voted to be raised, which sums 
shall be assessed and collected by the officers of the town in 
the same manner as town taxes, and shall be paid over to the 
treasurer of the district. The assessors, treasurer, and col- 
lector of a town in which such district is organized shall have 
the same powers and perform the same duties in reference to 
the assessment and collection of the money voted by the fire 
district as they have and exercise in reference to the assess- 
ment, collection, and abatement of town taxes, and the sums 
so voted shall be assessed upon the property real and personal 
within the district. 

§ 543. The board of engineers may from time to time 
make and publish rules and regulations for their own govern- 
ment, and for that of other members of the department and 
of persons present at fires, and for regulating or prohibiting 
the carrying of fire or ignited substances in or through the 
streets or ways of the district, and may prescribe penalties 
for the violation thereof, not exceeding twenty dollars for 
each offence. The board may appoint enginemen, hosemen, 
and hook-and-ladder men, and remove them, and fill vacancies 
in the companies. 

§ 544. Engineers shall have and exercise the same powers 
and authority relative to the extinguishment of fires, and the 
demolishing for that purpose of buildings within their district, 
as firewards of towns ; and the inhabitants of districts shall 



188 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

be liable for acts done by such engineers, or by their orders, 
in the same manner as towns are liable for acts done by 
firewards. 

§ 545. Engineers and other members of the fire depart- 
ment of such district shall have the immunities and privileges 
of firewards and enginemen of towns, and shall receive such 
compensation as the district determines. 

§ 54:6. No by-law, rule, or regulation, adopted by the dis- 
trict, and having a penalty attached to it, shall be in force 
until it is approved by the superior court for the county in 
which such fire district is. Pub. Stats, ch. 35, §§ 50-58. 

§ 547. Such district, at a meeting called for that purpose, 
may alter the limits thereof so as to include any adjacent 
territory and its inhabitants, if a majority of the voters of 
said territory have petitioned therefor, setting forth the limits 
of the territory to be annexed ; or may exclude any person, or 
the estate of any person, who has thus petitioned, if the town 
within which the district is situated has assented thereto. 

§ 548. Fire districts heretofore legally organized shall 
continue and be subject to the provisions of this chapter in 
relation to fire districts. 

§ 549. No association, society, or club, organized as fire- 
men, shall be allowed in any city or town, except by the 
written permission of the mayor and aldermen or selectmen. 
Pub. Stats, ch. 35, §§ 60-62. 

(f) Fire Inquests. 

§ 550. The board of fire engineers in every city, except 
the city of Boston, and in every town in which a board of fire 
engineers is established, and the board of selectmen in any 
town in which no board of fire engineers is established, shall 
make investigation of the cause, origin, and circumstances of 
every fire occurring in such city or town in which property 
has been destroyed, and shall especially make investigation 
as to whether such fire was the result of carelessness or design. 
Such investigation shall be begun within two days, not includ- 
ing the Lord's day, of the occurrence of such fire. The board 
making the investigation shall within two weeks of the occur- 
rence of the fire furnish to the clerk of the city or town, as 



SELECTMEN, THEIR POWERS AND DUTIES. 189 

the case may be, for careful record by him in a book to be 
provided by the insurance commissioner, a written statement 
of all the facts relating to the cause and origin of the fire, the 
kind, value, and ownership of the property destroyed, and 
such other information as may be called for by the blanks 
provided by the commissioner. Such book of record shall be 
kept by the clerk in his office, and he shall make returns or a 
transcript therefrom of the record of each year upon blank 
forms to be provided by the commissioner, and shall forward 
the same to him within fifteen days from the first day of 
January. 

§ 551. Whenever from any such investigation there appears 
to the board making the same reasonable grounds for believing 
that the fire was caused by design, such board shall cause 
application to be made to a police, district, or municipal court 
or to a trial justice of the county in which such city or town 
is situated for an inquest to be held to make inquiry relative 
to such fire. The court or trial justice shall thereupon hold 
such inquest and take the testimony on oath of all persons 
supposed to be cognizant of any facts or to have means of 
knowledge in relation to the matters herein required to be 
examined and inquired into, and shall cause such testimony 
to be reduced to writing, verified and transmitted to the dis- 
trict attorney of the court for his action ; and shall also report 
in writing to the owners of property or other persons interested 
in the matter under inquiry any facts and circumstances as- 
certained by such inquest, which shall in the opinion of the 
court or justice require their attention. 

§ 552. The fees and expenses of the inquest shall be re- 
turned to the mayor and aldermen of the city or selectmen of 
the town in which the property was destroyed, and when 
audited and certified by them shall be paid by such city or 
town. Sts. 1889, ch. 451, §§ 1, 2, 6. 

§ 553. In any city in which there is no board of fire engi- 
neers the chief or head of the fire department shall have all 
the powers and perform all the duties, with like effect, of the 
board of fire engineers named in the three preceding sections. 
Sts. 1891, ch. 229. 



190 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

OFFENCES AGAINST THE PUBLIC PEACE. 

§ 554. If persons to the number of twelve or more, being 
armed with clubs or other dangerous weapons, or if persons 
to the number of thirty or more, whether armed or not, are 
unlawfully, riotously, or tumultuously assembled in a city or 
town, it shall be the duty of the mayor and of each of the 
aldermen of such city, of each of the selectmen of such town, 
of every justice of the peace living in any such city or town, 
and of the sheriff of the county and his deputies, to go among 
the persons so assembled, or as near to them as may be with 
safety, and in the name of the Commonwealth to command 
all the persons so assembled immediately and peaceably to 
disperse ; and if such persons do not thereupon immediately 
and peaceably disperse, it shall be the duty of each of said 
magistrates and officers to command the assistance of all per- 
sons there present in seizing, arresting, and securing such 
persons in custody, so that they may be proceeded with for 
their offence according to law. Pub. Stats, ch. 206, § 1. 

§ 555. When property of the value of fifty dollars or more 
is destroyed, or when property is injured to that amount, by 
persons to the number of twelve or more, riotously, routously, 
or tumultuously assembled, the city or town within which the 
property was situated shall, if the owner of such property uses 
all reasonable diligence to prevent its destruction or injury, 
and to procure the conviction of the offenders, be liable to 
indemnify the owner thereof to the amount of three fourths 
of the value of the property destroyed, or of the amount of 
such injury thereto, to be recovered in an action of tort. 

§ 556. A city or town which pays any sum under the pro- 
visions of the preceding section may recover the same against 
any or all of the persons who destroyed Or injured such prop- 
erty. Pub. Stats, ch. 206, §§ 8, 9. 

THE SUPPRESSION OF COMMON NUISANCES. 

§ 557. In a city or town which adopts this and the following 
section, or has adopted the corresponding provisions of earlier 
statutes, at a legal meeting of the city council or inhabitants 



SELECTMEN, THEIR POWERS AND DUTIES. 191 

of the town, if the ma) r or and aldermen or selectmen, after 
due notice in writing to the owner of a burnt, dilapidated, or 
dangerous building, and a hearing of the matter, adjudge the 
same to be a nuisance to the neighborhood, or dangerous, they 
may make and record an order prescribing such disposition, 
alteration, or regulation thereof as they deem necessary ; and 
thereupon the city or town clerk shall deliver a copy of the 
order to a constable, who shall forthwith serve an attested 
copy thereof upon such owner, and make return of his doings 
thereon to said clerk. Pub. Stats, ch. 101, § 1. 

§ 558. The mayor and aldermen of a city, or selectmen of 
a town, shall have the same power and authority to abate and 
remove any such nuisance as are given to the board of health 
of a city or town in sections twenty-one, twenty-two, and 
twenty-three of chapter eighty of the Public Statutes. Pub. 
Stats, ch. 101, § 5. 

A piggery in which swine are kept in such numbers that 
their natural odors fill the surrounding air, and make the 
occupation of the neighboring houses and passage over the 
adjacent highways disagreeable, is a nuisance. Com. v. Perry, 
139 Mass. 198. 

§ 559. All buildings, places, or tenements, resorted to for 
prostitution, lewdness, or illegal gaming, or used for the illegal 
keeping or sale of intoxicating liquors, shall be deemed com- 
mon nuisances. 

§ 560. The mayor and aldermen or selectmen of any 
place, upon complaint made to them under oath that the 
complainant has reason to believe, and does believe, that a 
booth, shed, or other temporary erection, situated within one 
mile of a musterfield, cattle-show ground, or other place of 
public gathering, is used and occupied for the sale of spir- 
ituous or fermented liquor, or for the purpose of gaming, may, 
if they consider the complaint well founded, order the owner 
or occupant thereof to vacate and close the same forthwith. 
If the owner or occupant refuses or neglects so to do, the 
mayor and aldermen or selectmen may forthwith abate such 
booth, shed, or erection as a nuisance, and pull down or other- 
wise destroy the same, in any manner they choose, or through 
the agency of any force, civil or military. Pub. Stats, ch. 
101, §§ 6, 10. 



192 THE TOWN OFFICER. 



JURORS. 



§ 561. The selectmen of each town shall once in every 
year prepare a list of such inhabitants of the town, not abso- 
lutely exempt, as they think well qualified to serve as jurors, 
being persons of good moral character, of sound judgment, 
and free from all legal exceptions ; which list shall include 
not less than one for every one hundred inhabitants of the town, 
and not more than one for every sixty inhabitants, computing 
by the then last census, except that in the counties of Nan- 
tucket and of Dukes County it may include one for every 
thirty inhabitants. Sts. 1891, ch. 131. 

§ 562. The list when so prepared shall be posted up by the 
selectmen in public places in the town ten days at least before 
it is submitted for revision and acceptance, and shall then be 
laid before the town ; and the town may alter it by adding the 
names of any persons liable to serve, or striking any names 
therefrom. 

§ 563. The selectmen shall cause the names borne on the 
list to be written, each on a separate paper or ballot, and shall 
roll up or fold the ballots so as to resemble each other as 
much as possible, and so that the name written thereon shall 
not be visible on the outside ; and they shall place the ballots 
in a box to be kept by the town clerk for that purpose. 

§ 564. If a person whose name is so placed in the jury 
box is convicted of a scandalous crime, or is guilty of gross 
immorality, his name shall be withdrawn therefrom by the 
selectmen, and he shall not be returned to serve as a juror. 
Pub. Stats, ch. 170, §§ 7-9. 

§ 565. All persons who are qualified to vote in the choice 
of representatives in the General Court shall be liable to be 
drawn and to serve as jurors, except as is hereinafter provided. 
Pub. Stats, ch. 170, § 1. 

§ 566. The following persons shall be exempt from serving 
as jurors, to wit : 

The governor, lieutenant-governor, members of the council, 
secretary of the Commonwealth, members and officers of the 
senate and house of representatives during the session of the 
General Court, judges and justices of a court (except justices 



SELECTMEN, THEIR POWERS AND DUTIES. 193 

of the peace), county and special commissioners, clerks of 
courts, registers of probate and insolvency, registers of deeds, 
sheriffs and their deputies, constables, marshals of the United 
States and their deputies, and all other officers of the United 
States, attorneys at law, settled ministers of the gospel, officers 
of colleges, preceptors and teachers of incorporated academies, 
practising physicians and surgeons regularly licensed, cashiers 
of incorporated banks, constant ferrymen, persons who are 
more than sixty-five years old, members of the volunteer 
militia, members of the ancient and honorable artillery com- 
pany, the superintendent, officers, and assistants employed in 
or about a state hospital, state almshouse, jail, lunatic hospital, 
house of correction, house of industry, reform school, or state 
prison, keepers of light-houses, conductors and engine-drivers 
of railroad trains, and teachers in public schools, shall be 
exempt from service as jurors, and enginemen and members 
of the fire department of the city of Boston ; and enginemen 
and members of the fire department of other places may be 
exempt by the vote of the city council of the city or the 
inhabitants of the town. Pub. Stats, ch. 170, § 2. 

No officer or soldier shall be liable to jury duty while in 
the active militia service ; and any officer or soldier who has 
served continuously and faithfully for nine years in the volun- 
teer militia shall be exempt for life thereafter from the per- 
formance of jury duty. Pub. Stats, ch. 14, § 153. 

§ 567. No person shall be liable to be drawn and serve as 
a juror in any court oftener than once in three years, except as 
provided in the following section, but he shall not be so exempt 
unless he actually attends and serves as a juror in pursuance 
of the draft. Pub. Stats, ch. 170, § 3. 

"Any court" in the foregoing includes courts of the United 
States. Swan's Case, 16 Mass. 220. 

§ 568. The inhabitants of the counties of Nantucket and 
Dukes County shall be liable to be drawn and serve as jurors 
once in every two years. 

§ 569. The clerks of the supreme judicial court and supe- 
rior court, in due season before each term, and at such other 
times as the respective courts may order, shall issue writs of 
venire facias for jurors, and shall therein require the atten- 

13 



194 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

dance of the jurors on such day of the term as the court may 
order. Pub. Stats, ch. 170, §§ 4, 10. 

§ 570. No venires shall be issued for the drawing and sum- 
moning of jurors for the sitting of the supreme judicial court 
for the county of Barnstable, unless at the time now provided 
by law for the issuing of venires for the drawing and sum- 
moning of jurors for the sitting of said court in said county, 
there shall be for trial some suit in which a trial by jury has 
been requested by one of the parties thereto, or which is of 
such a character that it must be tried by a jury. Sts. 1889, 
ch. 173. 

§ 571. All jurors, whether required to serve on a grand or 
traverse jury, or by force of the laws relating to highways, or 
on any other occasion (except inquests and proceedings relat- 
ing to the commitment of insane persons), shall be selected 
by drawing ballots from the jury box, and the persons whose 
names are borne on the ballots so drawn shall be returned to 
serve as jurors. 

§ 572. When jurors are to be so drawn, the town clerk 
and selectmen shall attend at the clerk's office, or at some 
other public place appointed for the purpose, and, if the clerk 
is absent, the selectmen may proceed without him. The bal- 
lots in the jury box shall be shaken and mixed together, and 
one of the selectmen without seeing the names written thereon 
shall openly draw therefrom a number of ballots equal to the 
number of jurors required. If a person so drawn is exempt 
by law, or is unable by reason of sickness or absence from 
home to attend as a juror, or if he has served as a juror in a 
court within three years then next preceding, his name shall 
be returned into the box and another drawn in his stead. 

§ 573. When a person is drawn and returned to serve as a 
juror in a court, the selectmen shall indorse on the ballot the 
date of the draft, and return it into the box ; and whenever 
there is a revision and renewal of the ballots in the box, the 
selectmen shall transfer to the new ballots the date of all the 
drafts made within three years then next preceding. 

§ 574. A town may at a legal meeting order that all drafts 
for jurors therein shall be made in open town meeting, in 
which case the draft shall be made by the selectmen in the 



SELECTMEN, THEIR POWERS AND DUTIES. 195 

manner prescribed in the two preceding sections, except that 
it shall be done in a town meeting. In such town, when a 
venire is served upon the selectmen, they shall cause a 
town meeting to be notified and warned for that purpose, in 
the manner ordered by the town or otherwise prescribed by 
the law. 

§ 575. The meeting for drawing jurors, whether the draft 
is made in town meeting or before the selectmen and town 
clerk only, shall be held not less than seven nor more than 
twenty-one days before the day when the jurors are required 
to attend. Pub. Stats, eh. 170, §§ 17-21. 

§ 576. The constable shall, four days at least before the 
time when the jurors are required to attend, summon each 
person who is drawn, by reading to him the venire with the 
indorsement thereon of his having been drawn, or by leaving 
at his place of abode a written notification of his having been 
drawn, and of the time and place of the sitting of the court at 
which he is to attend, and shall make a return of the venire 
with his doings thereon to the clerk, before the opening of the 
court from which it was issued. Pub. Stats, ch. 170, § 22. 

It is not necessary that notice to jurors, who are drawn to 
assess damages caused by the laying out of a highway or rail- 
road, should be served by a constable ; such notice may be 
served by the officer to whom the warrant for summoning a 
jury is directed. Wyman v. Lexington, &c. R. R. 13 Met. 
316. 

It is not necessary that the town clerk or selectmen of a 
town should endorse upon a venire for jurors, the names of 
the persons who are drawn. Com. v. Besse, 143 Mass. 80. 

§ 577. Grand jurors shall be drawn, summoned, and 
returned in the same manner as jurors for trials ; and when 
drawn at the same time with jurors for trials, the persons 
whose names are first drawn, to the number required, shall 
be returned as grand jurors, and those afterwards drawn 
shall be jurors for trials. 

§ 578. In case of deficiency of grand jurors in any court, 
writs of venire facias may be issued to the constables of such 
cities or towns as the court may direct, to return forthwith 
such further number of grand jurors as may be required. 
Pub. Stats, ch. 213, §§ 3, 4. 



196 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

DOGS, 

§ 579. The mayor of each city and the chairman of the 
selectmen of each town shall annually, within ten days from 
the first day of July, issue a warrant to one or more police 
officers or constables, directing them to proceed forthwith 
either to kill or cause to be killed all dogs within such city or 
town not licensed and collared according to the provisions of 
this chapter, and to enter complaint against the owners or 
keepers thereof ; and any person may, and every police officer 
and constable shall, kill or cause to be killed all such dogs 
whenever or wherever found. Such officers, other than those 
employed under regular pay, shall receive one dollar for each 
dog so destroyed from the treasurers of their respective 
counties, except that in the county of Suffolk they shall receive 
it from the treasurers of their respective cities or towns. All 
bills for such services shall be approved by the mayor of the 
city or chairman of the selectmen of the town in which said 
dogs are destroyed, and shall be paid from moneys received 
under the provisions of this chapter. 

§ 580. Each police officer or constable to whom the warrant 
named in the preceding section is issued, shall return the same 
on or before the first day of the October following to the 
mayor or chairman of selectmen issuing the same, and shall 
state in said return the number of dogs killed, and the names 
of the owners or keepers thereof, and whether all unlicensed 
dogs in his city or town have been killed, and the names of 
persons against whom complaints have been made under the 
provisions of this chapter, and whether complaints have been 
entered against all the persons who have failed to comply with 
said provisions. Pub. Stats, ch. 102, §§ 90, 91. 

§ 581. The warrants required to be issued by the above 
two sections may be in the following form, viz. : — 

Commonwealth of Massachusetts. 
[Seal.] 

M , ss. To , constable of the town (or city) of 
In the name of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, you are 
hereby required to proceed forthwith to kill or cause to be killed all 
dogs within the said town not duly licensed and collared according 



SELECTMEN, THEIR POWERS AND DUTIES. 197 

to the provisions of chapter one hundred and two of the Public 
Statutes, and you are further required to make and enter complaint 
aigainst the owner or keeper of every such dog. 

Hereof fail not, and make due return of this warrant with your 
doings therein, stating the number of dogs killed and the names of 
the owners or keepers thereof, and whether all unlicensed dogs in 
said town (or city) have been killed, and the names of persons 
against whom complaints have been made under the provisions of 
said chapter, and whether complaints have been made and entered 
against all the persons who have failed to comply with the provisions 
of said chapter, on or before the first day of October next. 

Given under my hand and seal at aforesaid, the day of , 
in the year eighteen hundred and 

Mayor of [or Chairman of the Selectmen of] 
Pub. Stats, ch. 102, § 108. 

§ 582. Whoever suffers loss by the worrying, maiming, or 
killing of his sheep, lambs, fowls, or other domestic animals 
by dogs, without the enclosure of the owners or keepers of 
such dogs, may, if the damage is done in a city, inform the 
officer of police of said city who shall be designated to receive 
such informations by the authority appointing the police, and, 
if the damage is done in a town, may inform the chairman of the 
selectmen of the town wherein the damage was done, who shall 
proceed to the premises where the damage was done and deter- 
mine whether the same was inflicted by dogs, and if so appraise 
the amount thereof if not exceeding twenty dollars ; if in the 
opinion of said officer of police or chairman the amount of 
said damage exceeds twenty dollars he shall appoint two 
disinterested persons, who with himself shall appraise under 
oath the amount thereof. The said appraisers shall also 
consider and include in such damages the labor and time 
necessarily expended in the finding and collecting of the 
sheep, lambs, fowls, or other domestic animals so injured or 
separated, and the value of those lost or otherwise damaged 
by dogs. The said officer of police or chairman shall return 
a certificate of the damages found, except in the county of 
Suffolk, to the treasurer of the county where the damage is 
done within ten days after such appraisal is made. The 
treasurer shall thereupon submit the same to the county 



198 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

commissioners, who within thirty days shall examine all such 
bills, and if any doubt exists may summon the appraisers and 
all parties interested and make such examination as they 
may think proper, and shall issue an order upon the treasurer 
of the county in which the damage was done for all or any 
part thereof as justice and equity may require. The treasurer 
shall pay all orders drawn upon him for the above purpose in 
full on or after the first day of July in each year if the amount 
in his hands standing to the credit of the dog fund is sufficient 
therefor ; otherwise he shall pay such amount pro rata upon 
such orders in full discharge thereof on demand. The 
appraisers shall receive from the county, or in the county of 
Suffolk from the city or town treasurer, out of the moneys 
received under the provisions of this chapter relating to dogs, 
one dollar each for every such examination made by them ; 
and the mayor or the chairman of selectmen acting in the 
case shall receive twenty cents per mile one way for his 
necessary travel. Sts. 1889, ch. 454, § 1. 

§ 583. In the absence or sickness of the mayor or chair- 
man of the selectmen, it shall be the duty of any one of the 
aldermen of the city or of the selectmen of the town who may 
be duly informed of damage supposed to have been done by 
dogs to discharge forthwith the duties imposed by the pre- 
ceding section upon the mayor or chairman. Pub. Stats, ch. 
102, § 100. 

§ 584. The mayor and aldermen of a city or the selectmen 
of a town may offer a reward not exceeding ten dollars for 
the killing of any dog found to have worried, maimed, or 
killed any sheep, lambs, fowls, or other domestic animals, 
thereby causing damage for which the owner thereof may 
become entitled to compensation from the dog fund as provided 
for in the last section but one, or for evidence which shall 
determine to the satisfaction of the mayor and aldermen of a 
city or the selectmen of a town who is the owner or keeper of 
the dog or dogs by which such damage is done. The county 
commissioners, except in the county of Suffolk, are authorized 
and directed to pay the said reward from the dog fund upon 
a certificate signed by the mayor and aldermen of a city or 
selectmen of a town. 



SELECTMEN, THEIR POWERS AND DUTIES. 199 

§ 585. If the selectmen of a town or the mayor and alder- 
men of a city shall determine, after a hearing of which due 
notice has been given to parties interested, who is the owner 
or keeper of any dog or dogs found to have worried, maimed, 
or killed any sheep, lambs, fowls, or other domestic animals, 
thereby causing damages for which the owner thereof may 
become entitled to compensation from the dog fund as provided 
for in § 582 ante, they shall serve upon the owner or keeper 
of said dog a notice directing him within twenty-four hours to 
kill or confine such dog or dogs. Sts. 1889, ch. 454, §§ 2, 3. 

§ 586. The mayor and aldermen of a city or the selectmen 
of a town may order that any dog or dogs within the limits of 
such city or town respectively shall be muzzled or restrained 
from running at large during such time as shall be prescribed 
by such order. After passing such order and posting a 
certified copy thereof in two or more public places in such city 
or town, or, in case a daily newspaper is published in such 
city or town, by publishing such copy once in such newspaper, 
the mayor and aldermen or selectmen may issue their warrant 
to one or more of the police officers or constables of such city 
or town, who shall, after twenty-four hours from the publica- 
tion of such notice, kill all dogs found unmuzzled or running 
at large contrary to such order. 

§ 587. The mayor and aldermen or selectmen may cause 
special service of any such order to be made upon any person, 
requiring that a dog owned or kept by him shall be muzzled or 
restrained from running at large, by causing a certified copy of 
such order to be delivered to him ; and if he refuses or neglects 
for twelve hours thereafter to muzzle or restrain such dog as 
so required, he shall be punished by fine not exceeding twenty- 
five dollars. Pub. Stats, ch. 102, §§ 101, 103. 

§ 588. In the county of Suffolk, all moneys received for 
licenses or recovered as fines or penalties under the provisions 
of this chapter relating to dogs shall be paid into the treasury 
of the city or town in which said licenses are issued or said 
fines or penalties recovered. All claims for damage done by 
dogs in Suffolk County shall be determined by appraisers as 
specified in § 582 ante, and when approved by the board of 
aldermen or selectmen of the city or town where the damage 



200 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

was done, shall be paid in full on the first Wednesday of 
January of each year by the treasurer of such city or town, if 
the gross amount received by him and not previously paid out 
under the provisions of these sections relating to dogs is 
sufficient therefor ; otherwise such amount shall be divided 
pro rata among such claimants in full discharge of their 
claims. 

§ 589. Moneys received by a county treasurer under the 
provisions of the sections relating to dogs and not paid out 
for damages, shall in the month of January be paid back to 
the treasurers of the cities and towns in proportion to the 
amounts received from such cities and towns ; and the money 
so refunded shall be expended for the support of public 
libraries or schools. In Suffolk County, moneys so received 
by the treasurer of a city or town, and not so paid out, shall 
be expended by the school committee for the support of public 
schools. Pub. Stats, ch. 102, §§ 105, 107. 

§ 590. The city council of any city, and any town, may 
make such additional by-laws and regulations concerning the 
licensing and restraining of dogs as they deem expedient, and 
may affix penalties not exceeding ten dollars for a breach 
thereof ; but such by-laws and regulations shall relate only to 
dogs owned or kept in such city or town ; and the annual fee 
required for a license shall in no case be more than one dollar 
in addition to the sum required by § 403 ante. Pub. Stats. 
ch. 102, § 109. 



ASSESSORS OF TAXES. 201 



CHAPTER VI. 

ASSESSORS OF TAXES. 

ASSESSMENT OF TAXES, 
(a) Assessors, 

§ 591. Every assessor, assistant assessor, or other person 
chosen to assess taxes or determine or assist in determining 
the value of property for the purpose of taxation shall before 
entering upon the duties of his office take an oath which shall 
be in substance as follows : I, having been chosen to assess 
taxes and estimate the value of property for the purpose of 
taxation for the town [or city] of , for the year [or 

years] ensuing, do swear that I will truly and impartially, 
according to my best skill and judgment, assess and apportion 
all such taxes as I may during that time assess, that I will 
neither overvalue nor undervalue any property subject to taxa- 
tion, and that I will faithfully discharge all the duties of said 
office. Sts. 1893, ch. 423, § 10. 

§ 592. Assistant assessors, when chosen, shall be sworn, 
and shall in their respective wards or districts assist the asses- 
sors in taking a list of the ratable polls, in estimating the 
value of the real and personal estate in said wards or dis- 
tricts, and in making out lists of persons qualified to vote at 
elections. 

If a person chosen assessor, having notice of his election, 
neglects to take the oath of office, he shall forfeit a sum not 
exceeding fifty dollars. Sts. 1893, ch. 423, §§ 11, 39. 

§ 593. Every assessor, assistant assessor, or other person 
chosen to assess taxes or determine or assist in determining 
the value of property for the purpose of taxation, who having 
notice of his election neglects to take the oath prescribed by 
the preceding section before entering upon the duties of such 



202 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

office, shall be liable to the penalty provided in the preceding 
section. Sts. 1893, ch. 423, § 10. 



(b) Manner of Assessing Taxes. 

§ 594. When a state tax is to be assessed, the treasurer 
shall send his warrants for the assessing thereof by mail to 
the assessors of the several cities and towns in the Common- 
wealth. 

§ 595. The assessors shall assess state taxes for which 
they receive warrants from the treasurer, according to the 
rules prescribed in this chapter. They shall in like man- 
ner assess all county taxes which are duly certified to 
them, all city or town taxes voted by their places, and all 
taxes duly voted and certified by school and other districts 
therein. 

§ 596. Assessors of cities and towns in which any national 
bank or banking association is located, shall, for the purpose 
of ascertaining the rate at which taxes shall be assessed, omit 
from the valuation upon which the rate is to be based the 
value of all shares held by non-residents of said cities and 
towns, and no tax of any city or town shall be invalidated 
by reason of any excess, in consequence of the provisions of 
this section, of the amount of such tax over the amount to be 
raised. 

§ 597. The assessors shall each year assess taxes to an 
amount not less than the aggregate of all sums appropriated, 
granted, or lawfully expended by their respective cities or 
towns since the last preceding annual assessment and not pro- 
vided for therein ; of all sums which are required by law to 
be raised by taxation by the said cities or towns during said 
year ; and of all sums which are necessary to satisfy final 
judgments recovered against the said cities or towns ; but such 
assessments shall not include sums for the payment of which 
cities or towns have lawfully voted to contract debts, and the 
assessors may deduct from the amount required to be assessed 
the amount of all the estimated receipts of their respective 
cities or towns (except from loans or taxes) which are law- 
fully applicable to the payment of the expenditures of the 



ASSESSORS OP TAXES. 203 

year, but such deduction shall not exceed the amount of 
such receipts during the preceding year. Pub. Stats, ch. 11, 
§§ 31-34. 

§ 598. A town which is required by §§ 96-115 ante, to 
establish a sinking fund for the payment of its indebtedness, 
may, instead, by a majority vote provide for the payment of 
such indebtedness in such annual proportionate payments as 
will extinguish the same within the time prescribed in said 
sections ; and when such vote has been passed, the amount 
required thereby shall, without further vote, be assessed by 
the assessors in each year thereafter, until the debt shall be 
extinguished, in the same manner as other taxes are assessed 
under the provisions of the preceding section. Sts. 1882, ch. 
133, § 1. 

§ 599. The assessors of any city or town owing debts 
incurred to obtain funds for subscriptions for the capital stock 
and securities of any railroad corporation shall each year 
assess, in addition to the other amounts required by law, a 
sum sufficient to pay the interest on all debts so incurred, or, 
if there is any income derived from the capital stock or secu- 
rities of such corporations owned by such city or town as 
aforesaid, a sum sufficient to pay the excess of such interest 
payable by such city or town over such income. 

§ 600. If the assessors neglect to obey a warrant received 
from the state treasurer, or to assess a county, town, or dis- 
trict tax which is required by §§ 595, 597, and 599 ante, each 
assessor so neglecting shall forfeit a sum not exceeding two 
hundred dollars ; and the commissioners in the respective 
counties shall forthwith appoint other suitable persons to 
assess such tax according to the warrant of the treasurer. 
The persons so appointed shall take the same oath, perform 
the same duties, and be liable to the same penalties, provided 
in the case of assessors of towns. Pub. Stats, ch. 11, §§ 35, 



RULES FOR ASSESSING TAXES. 

The poll tax is found by dividing the amount of the state tax 
by the number of taxable polls, then dividing the amount of the 
county tax by the number of taxable polls, and adding the quo- 



204 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

tients ; but if either of the quotients exceeds $1.00, it must be 
placed at $1.00 for the purpose of determining the poll tax, so that 
in no case can this tax exceed $2.00 for each poll. 

Divide the whole amount to be raised for town purposes by the 
amount of the taxable property, and the quotient will be the tax 
upon $1.00. Multiply the tax upon $ 1.00 by the taxable property 
of an individual ; to the product add his poll tax, and the sum 
will be his tax. If the poll taxes should not pay the state and 
count} 7 taxes, any deficiency in either must be added to the 
amount to be raised for town purposes. Herrick's Town Officer, 
p. 403. 

(c) Notices arid Lists. 

§ 601. Before proceeding to make an assessment, the 
assessors shall give seasonable notice thereof to the inhabi- 
tants of their respective places, at any of their meetings, or 
by posting up in their city or town one or more notifications 
in some public place or places, or by some other sufficient 
manner. Such notice shall require the inhabitants to bring 
in to the assessors, within a time therein specified, true lists 
of all their polls and personal estates not exempted from tax- 
ation, and may or may not require them to include real estate 
in their lists of property subject to taxation. Unless such 
requirement is made in said notice, the omission of real estate 
from the list brought in to the assessors shall not deprive the 
owner of such real estate of his right to an abatement of the 
tax thereon, if he files with his application to the assessors 
for abatement a list of the real estate on which the same is 
claimed, with his estimate of the fair cash value of each 
parcel thereof, and makes oath that said list and estimate are 
true, according to his best knowledge and belief. Pub. Stats. 
ch. 11, § 38. 

§ 602. Any mortgagor or mortgagee of real estate may 
bring in to the assessors of the town or city where such real 
estate lies, within such time as shall be specified for bringing 
in the lists as provided in the preceding section, a statement, 
under oath, of the amount due on each separate lot or parcel 
of such real estate, and the name and residence of every 
holder of an interest therein as a mortgagee or mortgagor. 
When such property is situated in two or more places, or 



ASSESSORS OP TAXES. 205 

when a recorded mortgage includes for one sum two or more 
estates or parts of an estate, an estimate of the amount of the 
mortgagee's interest in each estate or part of an estate shall 
be given in such statement. The assessors shall, from such 
statements or otherwise, ascertain the proportionate parts of 
such estates that are the interests of mortgagees and mortga- 
gors respectively, and shall assess the same. Whenever, in 
any case of mortgaged real estate, a statement is not brought 
in as herein provided, no tax for the then current year 
on such real estate shall be invalidated for the reason that 
a mortgagee's interest therein has not been assessed to 
him. 

§ 603. The preceding provisions shall be included in the 
notice to be given by the assessors under the provisions of the 
last section but one. Sts. 1882, ch. 175, §§ 1, 2. 

§ 604. The notice to be given to assessors under the pro- 
visions of the three preceding sections shall require all persons 
and corporations to bring in to the assessors, within a time 
therein specified, not later than the first day of July in the 
then current year, true lists of all real and personal estate 
held by such persons and corporations respectively for literary, 
benevolent, charitable, or scientific purposes on the first day of 
May in said year, together with statements of the amounts of 
all receipts and expenditures by such persons or corporations 
for said purposes during the year next preceding said first day 
of May ; such lists and statements to be in such detail as may 
be required by the tax commissioner : provided that the asses- 
sors may accept any such list and statement after the time so 
specified if they shall be satisfied that there was good cause 
for the delay ; but no list or statement shall be received after 
the first day of August in the then current year : provided 
also, that instead of making such list and statement as of the 
first day of May, as above provided, any such corporation may 
at its option make such list and statement as of the last day 
of its financial year next preceding said first day of May. 
Sts. 1882, ch. 217, § 1 ; Sts. 1888, ch. 323. 

§ 605. The assessors shall in all cases require a person 
bringing in a list to make oath that the same is true ; which 
oath may be administered by one of the assessors, or by their 



206 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

secretary or head clerk, unless such person is absent from the 
city or town in which the tax is to be laid during the whole 
period when it may be made, in which case the oath may be 
administered by a notary public, the jurat to be duly 
authenticated by his seal. Sts. 1891, ch. 381. 

Corporations are required to bring in such lists. Otis 
Company v. Ware, 8 Gray, 509. But it is not intended that 
such lists should contain an estimated value of the property. 
Newburyport v. County Commissioners, 12 Met. 211. 

§ 606. They shall receive as true (except as to valuation) 
the list brought in by each individual according to the direc- 
tions of § 601 ante, unless, on being thereto required by the 
assessors, he refuses to answer on oath all necessary inquiries 
as to the nature and amount of his property. Pub. Stats, ch. 
11, § 40. 

The assessors cannot correct this list upon any informa- 
tion, however satisfactory, as to the existence of other taxable 
property, which is not communicated to the tax-payer. Having 
furnished them with his list under oath, he is entitled, before 
he can be assessed upon other property, to have them hear his 
statements or explanations in regard to it. Moors v. Street 
Commissioners, 134 Mass. 432. 

A list enumerated in detail the real and personal property 
of the maker in that town, but did not in terms state that it 
was all his property liable to taxation there. The jurat recited 
that " the statement and valuation is correct and true accord- 
ing to his best knowledge and belief." Held, that there was 
a substantial compliance with the requirements of the statute. 
Lanesborough v. Berkshire County Commissioners, 131 Mass. 
424. 

§ 607. They shall ascertain as nearly as possible the par- 
ticulars of the personal estate, and of • the real estate in 
possession or occupation, as owner or otherwise, of any 
person who has not brought in a list as required by them, 
and shall make an estimate thereof at its just value, accord- 
ing to their best information and belief. Pub. Stats, ch. 11, 
§ 41. 

It is sufficient to make a general estimate of each class of 
property. Tobey v. Wareham, 2 Allen, 594. 



ASSESSORS OP TAXES. 207 

§ 608. . Such estimate shall be entered in the valuation, and 
shall be conclusive upon all persons who have not seasonably 
brought in lists of their estates, unless they can show a 
reasonable excuse for the omission, and except as is stated in 
§§ 601 and 634. 

§ 609. In making the estimate provided for in the two 
preceding sections, the assessors shall specify the amount of 
each class of personal property mentioned in clauses numbered 
eighth, ninth, tenth, and eleventh in § 619 post and enter the 
same, in column number five, upon the blank-books furnished 
under the directions in § 617 post : provided, that an error or 
over-estimate of any class shall not be taken into account in 
determining whether a person is entitled to an abatement, but 
only the aggregate amount of such estimate. 

§ 610. After personal property has been legally assessed 
in any city or town to an executor, administrator, or trustee, 
an amount not less than that last assessed by the assessors of 
such city or town in respect of such property shall be deemed 
to be the sum assessable, unless a true list of such property is 
brought in to the assessors in accordance with the directions 
in § 601 ante. 

§ 611. The assessors of each place shall at the time 
appointed make a fair cash valuation of all the estate, real 
and personal, subject to taxation therein. 

§ 612. The assessors, when they think it convenient, may 
include in the same assessment their state, county, and town 
taxes, or any two of them. Pub. Stats, ch. 11, §§ 42-46. 

§ 613. The assessors shall in each year assess upon the 
polls the state and county taxes, and if either of said taxes 
exceeds in amount the sum of one dollar upon each poll, 
the excess above said amount, and in every case the whole 
amount assessed for other purposes, shall be apportioned 
upon property as provided by this chapter. Pub. Stats, ch. 
11, § 48. 

The omission to comply with this provision renders the 
whole tax illegal. G-erry v. Stoneham, 1 Allen, 319. 

§ 614. They may, for the purpose of avoiding fractional 
divisions of the amount to be assessed in the apportionment 
thereof, add to that amount a sum not exceeding five per 



208 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

cent thereof. And this overlay is authorized notwithstanding 
the limit of taxation now provided hy law may, by such over- 
lay, be exceeded. Sts. 1887, ch. 226. 

§ 615. They shall make, upon the blank-books furnished 
in accordance with § 617 post a list of the valuation and the 
assessment thereon, and, before the taxes assessed are com- 
mitted for collection, shall deposit the same, or an attested 
copy thereof, in their office, or, if there is no office, with their 
chairman, for public inspection. The residents and non- 
resident property holders of each city or town shall at all 
reasonable times have free access to its respective list of 
valuation and assessment, and if the assessors refuse or 
neglect to submit the said list to the inspection of any of said 
residents or non-resident property holders on request, each 
assessor so refusing or neglecting shall forfeit a sum not 
exceeding one hundred dollars in each case. Sts. 1888, 
ch. 307. 

Depositing the list the day before is sufficient. Tobey v. 
Wareham, 2 Allen, 594. 

§ 616. The first part of the list shall exhibit the valuation 
and assessment of the polls and estates of the inhabitants 
assessed. 

The second part shall exhibit the valuation and assessment 
of the estates of non-resident owners, and shall contain in 
separate columns the following particulars, to wit: — 

The names of the non-resident owners of the property 
assessed, or such description of them as can be given. 

Their places of abode, if known. 

The description of their estate. 

The true value of such estate. 

The tax thereon. Pub. Stats, ch. 11, § 51. 

§ 617. The secretary of the Commonwealth shall furnish 
to each city and town, on or before the first day of May in 
each year, suitable blank-books for the use of the assessors in 
the assessment of taxes, which books shall contain blank 
columns numbered from one to twenty-three, inclusive, with 
uniform headings for a valuation list, and blank tables for 
aggregates, in the following form : — 



ASSESSORS OF TAXES. 209 

Valuation List for the of May 1, 18 . 



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210 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

Pub. Stats, ch. 11, § 52; Sts. 1883, ch. 41; -Sts. 1890, ch. 
242, §§1,2; Sts. 1891, ch. 65. 

§ 618. The assessors shall enter in the books furnished in 
accordance with the provisions of the preceding section the 
valuation and assessment of the polls and estates of the inhab- 
itants assessed, in the following order : — 

In Column Number One. The names of the inhabitants or 
persons assessed for polls or estates, with the street and num- 
ber of their residence. 

In Column Number Two. The number of polls for which 
any person named in the preceding column is taxable. 

In Column Number Three. The total amount of cash tax 
on polls. 

In Column Number Four. The amount of each person's 
whole stock in trade, including all goods, wares, and merchan- 
dise, at home or abroad, of ratable estate, whether paid for or 
otherwise. 

In Column Number Five. A description of all ratable cash 
assets, viz. : Amount of money at interest more than the per- 
son assessed pays interest for, including public securities ; the 
amount of money on hand, including deposits in any bank or 
in any savings bank, which is not exempted by law from taxa- 
tion ; the number of shares of stock which are taxable, with 
the name of the corporation, in any bank, railroad, insurance, 
manufacturing, or other incorporated company ; and a speci- 
fication of the amount of each class of personal property 
mentioned in the following section. 

In Column Number Six. The true ratable value of the 
several items enumerated in the preceding column, placed 
opposite the description of said property or shares. 

In Column Number Seven. The true value of machinery 
used in all kinds of manufacturing establishments, including 
steam-engines, etc., the value of such machinery to be entered 
opposite the description of the building in which it is used. 

In Columns Number Eight and Nine. The whole number 
of taxable live stock, including horses, mules, asses, oxen, 
cows, steers, heifers, sheep, and swine ; each kind to be stated 
separately, with the value affixed to each. 

In Columns Number Ten and Eleven. A description of all 



ASSESSORS OF TAXES. 211 

other ratable personal estate, not before enumerated, such as 
carriages, income, plate, furniture, tons of vessels, etc., with 
the true value of the same. 

In Column Number Twelve. The aggregate of each per- 
son's ratable personal estate. 

In Column Number Thirteen. The total tax on each per- 
son's personal estate. 

In Column Number Fourteen. Buildings of all kinds shall 
be described in the following order : — 

Dwelling-houses ; barns ; shops of all kinds, naming their 
uses ; stores ; warehouses ; distil-houses ; breweries ; tanneries 
and other manufactories of leather ; ropewalks ; grist-mills ; 
saw-mills ; steam and other mills not above enumerated ; cotton 
factories, with the number of spindles and looms used in the 
same ; woollen factories, with the number of sets of cards 
used in the same ; linen factories, with the number of spindles 
and looms ; print-works ; bleacheries ; gas-works ; paper-mills ; 
card factories ; boot and shoe factories ; india-rubber factories ; 
carriage and car factories ; piano-forte and musical-instrument 
factories ; sewing-machine factories ; chair, pail, tub, and other 
wooden-ware factories ; oil factories ; glass factories ; all kinds 
of iron and brass works ; and other buildings not above 
named. 

In Column number Fifteen. The true value of buildings 
enumerated in the preceding column, placed opposite the 
description of the same, including water-wheels ; such value 
to be exclusive of land and water power and of the machinery 
used in said buildings. 

In Columns Number Sixteen, Seventeen, and Eighteen. A 
description by name or otherwise of each and every lot of 
land assessed, the same placed opposite the name of the person 
or party to whom it is taxable, with the number of acres or 
feet in each lot, the number of quartz-sand beds, of stone 
quarries and ore beds, and the true value thereof. 

In Columns Number Nineteen and Twenty. The number of 
superficial feet of wharf, and the total value of the same. 

In Column Number Twenty-one. The aggregate value of 
each person's taxable real estate. 

In Column Number Twenty-two. The total tax on real 
estate. 



212 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

In Column Number Twenty-three. The aggregate cash tax 
assessed to each person on polls, and on personal and real 
estate. Pub. Stats, ch. 11, § 53 ; Sts. 1883, eh. 41. 

The valuations of property in previous years for the pur- 
pose of assessing taxes are not evidence of its value in subse- 
quent years ; but an assessment already made on this basis 
will not be held to be bad on this ground. Lowell v. County 
Commissioners , 152 Mass. 372. 

The tax assessors in the valuation list of a single parcel of 
land entered the estate as follows : House W. St. $3,200 ; 
House M. St. $1,600 ; Stable, $400 ; Greenhouse, $200 ; Land, 
6 acres, $1,800. Aggregate value of real estate, $7,200. Held. 
" although the owners had divided the tract of land into two 
house lots, yet as they were contiguous this did not require 
the assessors to make a separate valuation of each lot, but 
they might value the whole tract as one lot." Morton, C. J., 
in Bemis v. Caldwell, 143 Mass. 299. 

§ 619. The assessors shall fill up the table of aggregates 
by an enumeration of the necessary items included in the 
lists of valuation and assessments required by law, and shall 
on or before the first day of October in each year deposit in 
the office of the secretary of the Commonwealth an attested 
copy of the same, containing : First. The number of residents 
assessed on property, specifying the number of individuals and 
the number of firms, corporations, associations, institutions, 
trustees, and so forth. Second. The number of non-resi- 
dents assessed on property, specifying the number of indi- 
viduals and the number of firms, corporations, associations, 
institutions, trustees, and so forth. Third. The whole num- 
ber of persons assessed, specifying the number assessed for a 
tax on property and the number assessed for a poll tax only. 
Fourth. The number of polls assessed, specifying the number 
of male polls and the number of female polls. Fifth. The 
tax on each poll, male or female. Sixth. The value of per- 
sonal estate assessed, specifying the value of the same, ex- 
cluding resident bank stock, and the value of resident bank 
stock. Seventh. The value of real estate assessed, specifying 
the value of buildings exclusive of land, and of land exclusive 
of buildings. Eighth. The total valuation of assessed estate 



ASSESSORS OF TAXES. 213 

in the city or town. Ninth. The tax for state, county, and 
city or town purposes, including overlayings, specifying the 
amount assessed on personal estate, on real estate, and on 
polls. Tenth. The rate of total tax per one thousand dol- 
lars. Eleventh. The number of horses assessed. Twelfth. 
The number of cows assessed. Thirteenth. The number of 
sheep assessed. Fourteenth. The number of neat cattle, 
other than cows, assessed. Fifteenth. The number of swine 
assessed. Sixteenth. The number of dwelling-houses as- 
sessed. Seventeenth. The number of acres of land assessed. 
Eighteenth. The total number and value of fowl assessed, 
its. 1890, ch. 242 ; Sts. 1891, ch. 65. 

§ 620. The assessors shall make similar returns in the first 
four years of the last half of each decade ; and in every fifth 
and tenth year of each decade they shall deposit in the office 
of the secretary of the Commonwealth, on or before the first 
day of October, a certified copy, under oath, of the assessors' 
books of those years ; and said books thus deposited shall 
contain an aggregate sheet properly filled in accordance with 
the provisions of the preceding section, which shall be in like 
manner certified by the assessors, and in every fifth and tenth 
year of each decade the secretary shall furnish duplicate copies 
of blank-books to the cities and towns for the foregoing pur- 
pose : provided, that, in the case of the city of Boston, the 
returns required by this section to be deposited in the office of 
the secretary may be thus deposited on or before the first day 
of November, in the several years respectively. Pub. Stats. 
ch. 11, § 55. The returns and copies of assessors' books, 
required by this and the previous section to be deposited by the 
assessors in the office of the secretary of the Commonwealth 
shall hereafter be deposited as follows : Copies of the asses- 
sors' books shall be deposited as required on or before the first 
day of October in the year eighteen hundred and eighty-three 
and in every third year thereafter ; and in such years the 
secretary of the Commonwealth shall furnish to the cities and 
towns duplicate copies of the blank books required for this 
purpose. And the other returns specified in said sections 
shall be so deposited on or before the first day of October in 
each year. Sts. 1883, ch. 91. 



214 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

§ 621. The assessors shall enter upon the valuation list, in 
the appropriate columns, after the enumeration of the taxable 
persons and estates therein contained, a statement and 
description of all the property and estate, and the fair ratable 
value thereof, situate in their respective cities or towns, or 
which would be taxable there but for the provisions of the 
third, seventh, and ninth divisions of § 660, with the names 
of the persons or corporations owning the same and the pur- 
pose for which it is used, which are exempted from taxation 
by the provisions of law aforesaid, with a reference to the 
law by which such exemption is allowed. 

§ 622. The assessors, or other persons empowered to assess 
the taxes in a city or town, shall, at the close of said valuation 
list, subscribe and take the following oath : — 

" We (the assessors, or mayor and aldermen, as the case may be, 
of ) do hereby solemnly swear that the foregoing list is a full 
and true list of the names of all persons known to us who are liable 
to taxation in (here insert the name of the city or town) during 

the present year, and that the real and personal estate contained in 
said list, and assessed upon each individual in said list, is a full 
and accurate assessment upon all the property of each individual 
liable to taxation, at its full and fair cash value, according to our 
best knowledge and belief." Pub. Stats, ch. 11, §§ 58, 59. 

FORMS. 

Notice to bring in Lists of Polls and Estates for Taxation. 

Notice. 

to the inhabitants and other persons liable to pay taxes 
in the town of b d". 

The assessors of the town of B d hereby give notice to the 

inhabitants of said town, and all other persons liable to pay taxes 
therein, that they will receive on and after the first day of May 
instant, until and including the fifteenth day of June next, the 
valuation of estates, and all persons liable to be taxed in said town 
are hereby required to bring in to us true and perfect lists of all the 
polls (males twent}^ years old and upwards) and schedules and 



i ASSESSORS OF TAXES. 215 

estimates of the real and personal estates possessed by them on the 
first of May, instant, for which they are liable to pay taxes in said 
town. 

A. B.) 

C. D. >- Assessors of B d. 

E. F. ) 

B jy, May 1, 189 . 

See § 601 ante, as to omission of real estate from such schedules. 
In large towns, where the assessors have an office, the above may 
be dated at their office, and the requirement be to bring in the lists 
to such office. 

Form of Certificate of the Oath administered to the Person 
returning and subscribing a List as above required. 

Essex, ss. B d, May, 189 . Then personally appeared the 

above-named R. S., and made oath that the foregoing statement 
and list by him subscribed is true. Before me, 

A. B., one of the Assessors of the town of B d. 

Bequest for Information made to Assessors of Town from 
which Tax-pager has removed. 

B d, 189 . 

To the Assessors of T d. 

Gentlemen, — B}^ authority of chapter eleven, section eighty-five, 
of the Public Statutes, we require such written statement of any 
facts within your knowledge as will assist the assessors of this 
town in determining the value of the personal estate of G. K., and 
also the amount of personal estate on which he was last assessed in 

T d. 

Very respectfully, for 

The Board of Assessors, 

E. F. one of the Assessors of the town of B d. 

T d, 189 . 

To the Assessors of B d. 

Gentlemen, — G. K., a resident of T d last year, was assessed 

by us as follows, viz. : — 
Real Estate 
Personal Estate 

Very respectfully, for 

The Board of Assessors, 
C. D., one of the Assessors of the town of T d. 



*16 



THE TOWN OFFICER. 



(d) Collector's List and Warrant 

§ 623. The tax list committed to the collectors shall con- 
tain a certificate signed by the assessors, which shall state 
what portion of the amount assessed upon each poll is assessed 
as state tax and county tax respectively, and shall be, in 
substance, as follows : — 



Names. 



No. of Polls. 



Poll-Tax. 



Tax on Real 
Estate. 



Tax on Personal 
Property. 



Total. 



Time when 
paid. 



Non- Residents. 



Names. 



Places of abode, if known. 



Tax. 



Assessors in cities shall enter in the list opposite the name of 
each resident male tax-payer the place of his residence, giving 
the street and number if possible. Pub. Stats, ch. 11, § 61 ; 
Sts. 1889, ch. 467, § 1. 

§ 624. The assessors shall, within a reasonable time, 
commit said tax-list with their warrant to the collector, or, if 
no collector is chosen, to a constable, or, if there is no con- 
stable, to the sheriff or his deputy for collection ; but the 
assessors of a town shall not commit a tax-list to the collector 
until the bonds of such collector and of the town treasurer 
have been given and approved as required by law. Pub. 
Stats, ch. 11, § 62. 

A warrant without a tax-list will not authorize a collector 
to collect by distress, but the two need not be attached 
together. Barnard v. Graves^ 13 Met. 85. 

Where a warrant is directed to a person as " constable or 
collector," it is sufficient if he is qualified to act at the time 
of the delivery of the warrant to him, though he was not at 
the time of its date. Hays v. Drake, 6 Gray, 387. 

§ 625. The warrant shall specify the duties of the collector 
as prescribed by law in the collection of taxes ; the times 
when and the persons to whom he shall pay them in ; shall be 
substantially in the form heretofore used ; and need not be 
under seal. Pub. Stats, ch. 11, § 63. 



ASSESSORS OF TAXES. 217 

A warrant to the collector of taxes of a town, if it properly 
states what the collector is to do, and the preliminary steps 
to be taken by him in the collection of the tax, complies with 
the requirements of this section, and it is not invalid if it 
does not direct the collector what to do with the money when 
he has received it. Leominster v. Oonant, 139 Mass. 384. 

§ 626. When a warrant issued for the collection of taxes is 
lost or destroyed, the assessors may issue a new warrant 
therefor, which shall have the same force and effect as the 
original warrant. Pub. Stats, ch. 11, § 64. 

FORM. 

Warrant from Assessors to Collectors of Taxes. 

Essex, ss. 

To Collector of the town of in the County of Essex, 

Greeting : 

In the name of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts 3-ou are 
hereby required by us, the subscribers, assessors of said town, to 
levy and collect of the several persons named in the list herewith 
committed to you, and of each one his respective proportion therein 
set down of the sum total of such list, the sum of it being this 
town's proportion of a tax of granted by the last General Court 
of said Commonwealth for defraying the necessaiy charges and ex- 
penses of the count}' aforesaid, and a tax of voted and agreed 
upon b} r the town aforesaid at a meeting legally held for that 
purpose, on the day of last, for defraying the necessary 

charges and expenses thereof; together with the sum of being 

the overlings on said taxes. 

And you are to complete and make up an account of the collec- 
tion of the whole sum, and transmit and pay over the same as 
follows ; to wit : to Esq., treasurer of the county aforesaid, or 

his successor in that office, on or before the da}^ of next, the 
sum of ; to treasurer of said town, or his successor in that 
office, on or before the day of next, the sum of 

And if any person shall refuse or neglect upon demand b} T you 
made to pay the sum he is assessed in said list, you are to distrain 
the goods of such person to the value thereof, and the goods so dis- 
trained to keep at the expense of the owner for the space of four 
days at the least, and to sell the same within seven days after the 
seizure by public auction for the payment of the tax and the charges 



218 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

of keeping and of the sale ; first giving notice of such sale b} T post- 
ing up a notification thereof, in some public place in the town, 
forty-eight hours at least before the sale. If the distress shall 
be sold for more than the tax and the charges of keeping the 
same and making the sale, you are to return the surplus to the 
owner on demand, with an account in writing of the sale and 
charges. If any person shall refuse or neglect for fourteen days 
after demand thereof made to paj r his tax, and you cannot find 
sufficient goods upon which it may be levied, besides tools or im- 
plements necessary for his trade or occupation, beasts of the 
plough necessary for the cultivation of his improved lands, military 
arms, utensils for housekeeping necessary for upholding life, and 
bedding, and apparel necessary for himself and family, you are to 
take the bod} T of such person and commit him to prison, there to 
remain until he shall pay the tax and charges of commitment and 
imprisonment, or be otherwise discharged by order of law. 

Given under our hands by virtue of a warrant (or certificate) 
from the commissioners of the count}' aforesaid, and the vote of 
said town passed on the day aforesaid, this day of in 

the 3 7 ear eighteen hundred and 

A. B. \ 

C. D. > Assessors of B d. 

County Tax, % E. F. j 

Town Tax, % 

Overlaying, % 

The above are sold by stationers furnishing law blanks. 

(e) Discount and Interest on Taxes. 

§ 627. Towns at their annual meetings, and city councils 
of cities, may allow a discount of such sums as they think ex- 
pedient to persons making voluntary payment of their taxes 
within such periods of time as they prescribe. In such case 
the collectors shall make such discount accordingly. 

§ 628. When such discount is allowed, the assessors, at 
the time of committing their warrant to the collector, shall 
post up, in one or more public places within the city or town, 
notice of the rates of discount. 

§ 629. When a city or town has fixed a time within which 
taxes assessed therein shall be paid, such city by its city 
council, and such town at the meeting when money is appro- 
priated or raised, may vote that, on all taxes remaining unpaid 



ASSESSORS OF TAXES. 219 

after a certain time, interest shall be paid at a specified rate, 
not exceeding seven per cent per annum ; and may also vote 
that, on all taxes remaining unpaid after another certain time, 
interest shall be paid at another specified rate, not exceeding 
seven per cent per annum ; and the interest accruing under 
such vote or votes shall be added to, and be a part of, such 
taxes. Pub. Stats, ch. 11, §§ 65-67. 

FORM. 

Notice of the Rates of Discount to be posted up by Assessors at 
the time of committing their Warrant to the Collector. 

The assessors of the town of B d hereby give notice that 

the}' have committed to A. B., collector of taxes for said town, 
their warrant for the collection of taxes, and that by a vote of said 
town the following discounts will be allowed to all who shall volun- 
tarily pa} 7 their taxes, viz. : — 

On all taxes paid within 30 days per cent. 
" " " " 60 " percent. 
" " " " 90 " per cent. 

E. F. 



J. K. \ Assessors of B d. 

B d, 189 . L.M. 

(f) Abatements. 

§ 630. A person aggrieved by the taxes assessed upon him 
may apply to the assessors for an abatement thereof ; and if 
he makes it appear that he is taxed at more than his just pro- 
portion, or upon an assessment of any of his property above 
its fair cash value, they shall make a reasonable abatement, 
and tenants paying rent for real estate, and under obligation 
to pay the whole or a major part of the taxes assessed thereon, 
may so apply in behalf of the owner and with like effect as if 
the owner had applied, and no neglect of the owner to file a 
list of his estate shall prevent the making an abatement, if 
it appears that such abatement should be made. Sts. 1888, 
ch. 315. But assessors cannot make this abatement after 
their term of office has expired. Cheshire v. Howland, 13 
Gray, 321. 

When a person is liable to taxation for personal and real 
estate in a city or town, his sole remedy for an over-taxation 



220 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

caused by an excessive valuation of his property, or by in- 
cluding in the assessment property of which he is not owner, 
or for which he is not liable to taxation, is by an application 
to the assessors for an abatement ; but this does not apply 
to the case of one who is taxed in a town where he does 
not reside, upon his poll and personal estate. Osborn v. 
Danvers, 6 Pick. 98 ; Preston v. Boston, 12 Pick. 7 ; Bates 
v. Boston, 5 Cush. 93. Upon petition for abatement, taxes 
upon the same or other property of the petitioner can- 
not be increased. Lowell v. County Commissioners, 3 Allen, 
546. 

If certain distinguishable items of a tax upon personal 
property, assessed by a town to non-residents, are improperly 
assessed there, the only remedy is by an application for an 
abatement under this section. Norcross v. Milford, 150 Mass. 
237. 

§ 631. If legal costs have accrued before making such 
abatement, the person applying for the abatement shall pay 
the same. Pub. Stats, ch. 11, § 70. 

§ 632. If the assessors refuse to make an abatement to a 
person, he may, within one month thereafter, make complaint 
thereof to the county commissioners by filing the same with 
their clerk, and if upon a hearing it appears that the com- 
plainant is overrated, the commissioners shall make such 
an abatement as they deem reasonable, and may make such 
order relating to the payment of costs as justice may seem to 
require : provided, that taxable costs shall not be allowed to a 
party who has failed to file a list of his estate as required by 
law. Pub. Stats, ch. 11, § 71 ; Sts. 1882, ch. 218. 

A tax-payer who has brought in a list containing all the 
requisite particulars of his taxable property, is not entitled to 
an abatement because the assessors value the items in gross, 
instead of separately as directed by the statute. Lowell v. 
County Commissioners, 152 Mass. 372. 

§ 633. No person shall have an abatement unless he has 
filed with the assessors a list subscribed by him of his estate 
liable to taxation, and made oath that such list is full and 
accurate according to his best knowledge and belief. When 
such list is not filed within the time specified by the assessors 



ASSESSORS OF TAXES. 221 

for bringing it in, no complaint from the judgment of the 
assessors shall be sustained by the county commissioners, 
unless they are satisfied that there was good cause why such 
list was not seasonably brought in, and except in cases 
provided for in the following section. Pub. Stats, ch. 11, 
§ 72. The list must be brought to the assessors before the 
tax is assessed. Porter v. County Commissioners of Norfolk , 
5 Gray, 365. 

The exhibition to the assessors of a plan of the tax-payer's 
real estate is not the carrying in of a list ; nor is a reference 
by oral communication to a former list, carried in two years 
before. Nor is the fact that the assessors are satisfied with- 
out a list equivalent to bringing in a list. Winnisimmet 
Company v. Assessors, etc., 6 Cush. 477. 

A person cannot have an abatement of tax before filing 
with the assessors the list required by the foregoing section, 
although there is good cause shown why such a list was not 
seasonably brought in ; and although he has offered to make 
out a schedule of his estate, which the assessors have declined 
to receive, and has made before them an oral statement of his 
estate under oath. Charlestown v. County Commissioners, 101 
Mass. 87. 

A list with the name of each shareholder, his residence, and 
the number of his shares furnished to the assessors of taxes 
where a bank is located, in the case of national banks, satisfies 
the requirements of this section. Bank of Commerce v. New 
Bedford, 155 Mass. 313. The word " person," in the sections 
of the statutes relating to abatement of taxes, applies to a 
corporation. Bank of Commerce v. New Bedford, ibid. 

§ 634. When the assessors of a city or town have given 
notice to the inhabitants thereof to bring in true lists of their 
polls and estates not exempt from taxation, in accordance with 
the provisions stated in § 601 ante, no part of the tax assessed 
on personal estate to a person who did not within the time 
specified therefor bring in such list shall be abated unless such 
tax exceeds by more than fifty per cent the amount which 
would have been assessed to that person on personal estate if 
he had seasonably brought in said list ; and if said tax exceeds 
by more than fifty per cent the said amount, the abatement 



222 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

shall be only of the excess above said fifty per cent : provided, 
that this section shall not affect any person who can show a 
reasonable excuse for not seasonably bringing in such list. 

§ 635. No abatement shall be allowed to a person unless 
he makes application therefor within six months after the date 
of his tax bill. Pub. Stats, ch. 11, §§ 73, 74. 

§ 636. A person having an abatement made shall, if his 
tax has been paid, be reimbursed out of the treasury of the 
city or town to the amount of the abatement allowed, together 
with all charges, except the legal costs provided for in § 631 
ante. Pub. Stats, ch. 11, § 75. 

Charges do not include the petitioner's costs in prosecuting 
his petition for abatement, nor interest upon the amount 
abated which had been paid by him under protest. Lowell v. 
County Commissioners, 3 Allen, 546. 

§ 637. Every person whose tax is abated shall be entitled 
to a certificate thereof from the assessors, clerk of the com- 
missioners, or other proper officer. 

§ 638. When a collector is satisfied that any poll tax, or 
tax upon personal property, or any portion of said tax, com- 
mitted to him or to any of his predecessors in office for 
collection, cannot be collected by reason of the death, absence, 
poverty, insolvency, bankruptcy, or other inability to pay of 
the person assessed, he shall notify the assessors thereof in 
writing, stating the reason why such tax cannot be collected, 
and verifying the same by oath. In such case the assessors, 
after due inquiry into the circumstances, may abate such tax, 
or any part thereof. When such abatement is made, the 
assessors shall certify the same in writing to the collectors ; 
and said certificate shall discharge the collector from further 
obligation to collect the tax so abated. But no poll-tax shall 
be abated under the provisions of this section within the 
calendar year in which the tax is assessed. Pub. Stats, ch. 
11, §§ 76, 77. 

§ 639. When a collector of taxes of a city or town is satis- 
fied that any sum heretofore added to the annual tax of any 
parent, master, or guardian, as or for the costs of books, cannot 
be collected for any of the reasons set forth in the preceding 
section he may make such statements, and the assessors may 



ASSESSORS OF TAXES. 223 

make such abatements, as are provided for in said section, and 
the certificate of the assessors abating such tax or any part 
thereof, shall discharge the collector from further obligation 
to collect the same. Sts. 1885, ch. 67. 

(g) Omitted Assessments. 

§ 640. When the assessors of any city or town, after their 
rate of taxation has been declared, and whether before or after 
their warrant has been committed to the collector, discover 
that the real or personal estate of any person, to an amount 
not less than one hundred dollars and liable to taxation, has 
been omitted from the last annual assessment of taxes in such 
city or town, said assessors shall between the fifteenth and 
twentieth days of December next ensuing proceed forthwith 
to assess such person for such estate in like manner as he 
should have been assessed in such last annual assessment. 
The taxes so assessed shall be entered in the tax-list of the 
collector of the city or town, and he shall collect and pay over 
the same in the manner specified in his warrant. No tax 
shall be invalidated for the reason that, in consequence of the 
provisions of this section, the whole amount of the taxes 
assessed in a city or town exceed the amount authorized by 
law to be raised. Sts. 1888, ch. 362. 

(h) Reassessment of Taxes. 

§ 641. Every tax, except a poll-tax, which is invalid by 
reason of any error or irregularity in the assessment, and 
which has not been paid, or which has been recovered back, 
may be reassessed by the assessors for the time being, to the 
just amount to which, and upon the estate or to the person to 
whom, such tax ought at first to have been assessed, whether 
such person has continued an inhabitant of the same city or 
town or not. No alienation of the real estate assessed shall 
defeat such reassessment, if made within two years after the 
tax first assessed was committed to the collector. 

§ 642. Taxes reassessed under the provisions of the pre- 
ceding section shall be committed to, and collected and paid 
over by, the collector for the time being, in the same manner 
as other taxes, except that the name of the person to whom 



224 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

the taxes were originally assessed shall be stated in the 
warrant ; and the bond of such collector shall apply to such 
reassessed taxes. 

(i) Apportionment of Taxes on Heal Estate Subsequently 

Divided. 

§ 643. When the assessors have assessed a tax upon real 
estate, and such real estate has been subsequently divided by 
sale, mortgage, or otherwise, by the owner or owners thereof, 
or upon a petition for partition, and record of such division 
has been made in the registry of deeds for the county or dis- 
trict in which such real estate is situated, the assessors at any 
time before said real estate has been sold for payment of taxes, 
upon the written request of the owner or mortgagee of any 
portion thereof, shall apportion said tax, and the costs and 
interest accrued thereon, upon the several parcels into which 
said real estate has been divided, in proportion to the value of 
each parcel thereof, and only the portion of said tax, interest, 
and costs so apportioned upon any such parcel shall thereafter 
continue to be a lien upon it ; and no one of such owners or 
mortgagees shall thereafter be liable for the tax so apportioned 
upon any parcel not owned in whole or in part by him at the 
time of such apportionment. 

§ 644. Notice of the request and of the time appointed for 
such apportionment shall be sent by mail by the assessors to 
all persons interested in said real estate whose addresses are 
known to them. Pub. Stats, ch. 11, §§ 79-82. 

(j) Additional Duties of Assessors. 

§ 645. When any person liable to be taxed for personal 
property has changed his domicil, the assessors of the city or 
town where he resides shall require forthwith of the assessors 
of the city or town where such person was last taxed as an 
inhabitant such written statement of any facts within their 
knowledge as will assist in determining the value of the per- 
sonal estate of such person, and also the amount he was last 
assessed in such city or town ; and such information shall be 
furnished by the assessors of the city or town where he was 



ASSESSORS OF TAXES. 225 

last taxed or assessed. When the assessors of any city or 
town have received notice from the assessors of any other city 
or town of the amount at which a person, who had been an 
inhabitant thereof, was last taxed on personal property, such 
notice shall be filed in their office, subject to public inspec- 
tion ; and they shall not assess such person upon any less 
amount of personal estate than he was last assessed, until he- 
has brought in to such assessors a list of his personal estate 
in accordance with the provisions stated in §§ 601 and 605 
ante. Whoever neglects to perform any duty imposed upon 
him by this section shall be punished by fine of not less than 
fifty nor more than two hundred dollars. 

§ 646. The assessors shall annually, on or before the first 
Monday of August, return to the tax commissioner the names 
of all corporations, except banks of issue and deposit, having 
a capital stock divided into shares, chartered by the Common- 
wealth or organized under the general laws for the purposes 
of business or profit, and established in their respective cities 
and towns or owning real estate therein, and of all companies, 
copartnerships, and other associations having a location or 
place of business in this Commonwealth in which the beneficial 
interest is held in shares assignable without consent of the 
other associates specifically authorizing such transfer, and a 
statement in detail of the works, structures, real estate, and 
machinery owned by each of said corporations, companies, 
copartnerships, and associations, and situated in such city or 
town, with the value thereof, on the first day of May preced- 
ing, and the amount at which the same is assessed in said city 
or town for the then current year. They shall also, at the 
same time, return to the tax commissioner the amount of 
taxes laid, or voted to be laid, within said city or town, for the 
then current year, for state, county, and town purposes. Pub. 
Stats, ch. 11, §§ 85, 86. 

§ 647. When the assessors of any city or town ascertain 
that the aggregate values of such city or town have been 
diminished since the first day of May of the preceding year, 
they shall return with the table of aggregates, or. with the 
books which they are required by the §§ 619 and 620 ante 
to deposit in the office of the secretary of the Commonwealth, 

15 



226 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

a statement in writing, under oath, of the causes which in 
their opinion have produced such diminution. 

§ 648. The assessors shall, on or before the first day of 
October in each year, make and forward to the tax commis- 
sioner a statement showing the whole amount of exempted 
property entered upon the valuation lists of their respective 
cities and towns in accordance with the provisions stated in 
§ 621 ante, and the amount in each class, and stating separately 
the aggregate amount belonging to each of the four classes 
embraced in the third division of § 660 post. They shall 
also include in said statement a tabular statement of the 
statistics derived from the returns described in § 663 post. 
Pub. Stats, ch. 11, §§ 88, 90. 

§ 649. The tax commissioner shall cause to be printed and 
distributed to assessors suitable printed forms for such lists 
and statements, and assessors shall forward to the tax com- 
missioner all such lists and statements received by them, with 
the statements required by the preceding section. Sts. 1882, 
ch. 217, § 3. 

§ 650. The assessors shall, on or before the first Monday 
of August, return to the tax commissioner the aggregate 
amount of the assets of their respective cities or towns, and 
the amount of indebtedness of such cities or towns, for which 
notes, bonds, or other similar evidences of debt, the payment 
of which is not provided for by the taxation of the then current 
year, were outstanding on the first day of May then next pre- 
ceding, with a concise statement of the various purposes for 
which such indebtedness was incurred, and the amount in- 
curred for each purpose. Pub. Stats, ch. 11, § 91. 

§ 651. The return required by the preceding section shall 
state the amount of any sinking fund established, and if not 
so established whether action has been taken in accordance 
with the provisions stated in § 598 ante and the amounts raised 
and applied thereunder for the current year. Sts. 1882, ch. 
133, § 2. 

§ 652. The assessors shall, in each year, on or before the 
first Monday in August, return to the tax commissioner a 
statement showing the whole number of steam-boilers located 
in their respective cities and towns on the first day of May 



ASSESSORS OF TAXES. 227 

then next preceding, by whom and when built, and the aggre- 
gate estimated amount of horse-power which such boilers are 
capable of furnishing. Such return shall also state the number 
of accidents causing permanent injuries to persons which have 
arisen from the use of such boilers during the year, with the 
causes thereof, as far as may be ascertained by the assessors. 
Pub. Stats, ch. 11, § 92. The tax commissioner shall, in due 
season, forward to the assessors blanks suitable for making 
the returns required by this section. Pub. Stats, ch. 13, § 6. 
§ 653. The assessors of any city or town shall, upon appli- 
cation to any one of them by any person assessed therein, 
give such person a certificate, which shall state what portion 
of the whole amount of such person's tax is assessed as state 
tax, county tax, and town tax, respectively ; and in such case 
the collector shall receive and receipt for either of such taxes 
separately, or for all together, as may be desired by the tax- 
payer ; and in such case also the state tax assessed upon poll 
and property, and the county tax assessed upon poll and 
property, shall each constitute an entire and indivisible tax : 
provided, that the tax bills of male persons who are assessed 
for poll taxes only shall state the apportionment of such taxes 
between state and county assessments, and such persons shall 
not be entitled to have the certificate provided for by this 
section, but the collector shall receipt on said bills for such 
taxes, separately, or together as the payment may be, and 
shall thereupon deliver such bills. Pub. Stats, ch. 11, § 93, 
and Sts. 1889, ch; 467, § 2. 

(k) Responsibility and Compensation of Assessors. 

§ 654. The assessors shall not be responsible for the 
assessment of a tax in a city, town, parish, religious society, 
fire district, or school district, for which they are assessors, 
when such tax is assessed by them in pursuance of a vote for 
that purpose, certified to them by the clerk or other proper 
officer of such city, town, parish, religious society, fire district, 
or school district, except for the want of integrity and fidelity 
on their own part. Pub. Stats, ch. 11, § 94. 

Assessors who act with fidelity and integrity in assessing a 
tax, in pursuance of a vote duly certified to them, are not 



228 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

responsible in any form of action for accidentally assessing a 
person not an inhabitant of the town or liable to be taxed. 
Baker v. Allen, 21 Pick. 382. 

Nor are they liable for omitting to tax an individual who is 
liable to taxation, by which he lost his right to vote, unless it 
is shown affirmatively that the omission was caused by want 
of integrity or fidelity. Griffin v. Rising, 11 Met. 339. 

But they are liable for assessing and issuing a warrant for 
the collection of a tax when the town is not legally organized. 
Dickinson v. Billings, 4 Gray, 42. 

§ 65d. Each assessor shall be paid by his city or town two 
dollars and fifty cents a day for every whole day that he is 
employed in that service, with such other compensation as the 
city or town shall allow. Pub. Stats, ch. 11, § 95. 

He is entitled to the statute compensation, if it exceeds that 
provided by the town ; but it must appear from the vote of 
the town that the sum voted is intended to be in addition to 
the statute compensation, if he is to take both. Moody v. 
Newburyport, 3 Met. 431. 

PERSONS AND PROPERTY SUBJECT TO TAXATION AND 
WHERE TAXABLE. 

(a) Persons and Property Taxable. 

§ 656. A poll-tax shall be assessed, in the manner herein- 
after provided, on every male inhabitant of the Commonwealth 
above the age of twenty years whether a citizen of the United 
States or an alien. 

§ 657. All property, real and personal, of the inhabitants 
of this state, not expressly exempted by law, shall be subject 
to taxation as hereinafter provided. Pub. Stats, ch. 11, §§ 1, 2. 

§ 658. Real estate, for the purposes of taxation, shall 
include all lands within this state, and all buildings and other 
things erected on or affixed to the same. Pub. Stats, ch. 
11, § 3. 

Real estate for the purpose of taxation, includes all lands, 
and all buildings and other things erected on or affixed to the 
same. This language will include a dam and sluice-way of 
a water company. Flax Pond Water Co. v. Lynn, 147 Mass. 
31, at p. 33. 



ASSESSORS OF TAXES. 229 

" A tax on real estate is regarded as a distinct and separate 
tax." Holmes, J., in Ingram v. Cowles, 150 Mass. 155, atp. 157. 

A building affixed to land cannot be taxed as " real estate " 
apart from the land to which it is attached. If a building is 
owned separately from the land as personal property, it cannot 
be taxed as real estate to the owner so as to create a lien, so 
that the purchaser will not succeed to any personal liability 
of the owner to pay the tax. McGree v. Salem, 149 Mass. 238. 

Owners of real estate, including trustees with the legal title, 
properly taxed for it, are personally liable for the tax. 
Richardson v. Boston, 148 Mass. 508. 

An action of contract to recover a tax lies after one year's 
neglect to pay the same, in like manner as for an individual 
debt. Felker v. Standard Yarn Co., 148 Mass. 226. 

Land owned by a manufacturing company under a canal 
passing through its premises is taxable to it, although its 
right to use the water is subject to that of others to have the 
water flow through the canal for use beyond its premises. 
Lowell v. County Commissioners, 152 Mass. 372. 

§ 659. Personal estate shall, for the purposes of taxation, 
include goods, chattels, money, and effects, wherever they are, 
ships and vessels at home or abroad, except as is stated in 
§ 662 post, money at interest, and other debts due the persons 
to be taxed more than they are indebted or pay interest for, 
but not including in such debts or indebtedness any loan on 
mortgage of real estate, taxable as real estate, except the excess 
of such loan above the assessed value of the mortgaged real 
estate, public stocks and securities, bonds of all railroads, in- 
cluding street railways, stocks in turnpikes, bridges, and 
moneyed corporations, within or without the state, the income 
from an annuity, from ships and vessels engaged in the foreign 
carrying trade within the meaning of said § 662, and so much 
of the income from a profession, trade, or employment as exceeds 
the sum of two thousand dollars a year, and which has accrued 
to any person during the year ending on the first day of May of 
the year in which the tax is assessed, but no income shall be 
taxed which is derived from property subject to taxation : pro- 
vided, that no taxes shall be assessed in any city or town for 
state, county, or town purposes upon the shares in the capital 



230 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

stock of any corporation organized or chartered in the Common- 
wealth paying a tax on its corporate franchises under the 
provisions of chapter thirteen of the Public Statutes for any 
year in which it pays such tax, but such shares shall be taxable 
to the owners thereof for school-district and parish purposes, 
and this proviso shall apply to corporations mentioned in the 
forty-sixth section of said chapter thirteen. Pub. Stats, ch. 11, 
§ 4 ; Sts. 1882, ch. 76 ; Sts. 1887, ch. 228 ; Sts. 1888, ch. 363. 

A clerk in a post-office, who is appointed by the deputy 
postmaster, and his appointment approved by the postmaster- 
general, is taxable for the income derived from his appointment 
as such clerk. This was held on the ground that he is not an 
officer of the United States, it having been decided in the 
Supreme Court of the United States that the several states 
have no authority to tax an officer of the government of the 
United States for his office or its emoluments. Melcher v. 
Boston, 9 Met. 73. 

Returns required by the statutes of another state, to the 
assessors, showing all the property and estate of a person, 
have no tendency to show what his income was, and are inad- 
missible in evidence. Nelson v. B. $ M. B. B., 155 Mass. 
356. 

Railroad stocks and bonds are not " public stocks and secur- 
ities " within the meaning of this section, but are " debts due," 
and the money invested in them is " money at interest " from 
which the owner is entitled, in determining the amount for 
which his personal estate shall be taxed under this section, 
to have money upon which he is paying interest deducted. 
Hale v. County Commissioners, 137 Mass. 111. 

Money deposited in a national bank (although bearing no 
interest) is liable to be taxed to the depositor, without any 
deduction on account of debts due from him. Cray v. Street 
Commissioners, 138 Mass. 414. 

Under this section, taken in connection with ch. 13, §§ 43, 
46, 57 of the Public Statutes, the shares of stock of a corpora- 
tion organized under the laws of this Commonwealth to build 
a railroad in a foreign country are taxable to the owner for 
state, county, or town purposes (although the corporation pays 
a tax on its franchise to the Commonwealth). Pratt v. Street 



ASSESSORS OF TAXES. 231 

Commissioners, 139 Mass. 559. The income from an annuity 
is taxable to those entitled to receive it. Williston Seminary 
v. County Commissioners, 14T Mass. 427. 

(b) Property and Persons Exempted from Taxation. 

§ 660. The following property and polls shall be exempted 
from taxation : — 

First, The property of the United States. 

Second, The property of the Commonwealth, except real 
estate of which the Commonwealth is in possession under a 
mortgage for condition broken. 

But in all cases where land belonging to the Commonwealth, 
and which on the twenty-eighth day of March in the year 
eighteen hundred and sixty-seven was in the control of the 
commissioners of public lands, has been sold by any commis- 
sioners of the Commonwealth, and agreements for deeds given, 
such land shall be free from taxation for the space of three 
years thereafter, unless previously built upon or otherwise 
improved by the purchasers or their assigns ; and upon the 
expiration of three years from the date of such sale, such 
lands shall be taxable to the purchasers thereof, or their assigns, 
in the same manner and to the same extent as if deeds of the 
same had been executed and delivered. Pub. Stats, ch. 11, 
§ 5, els. 1, 2. 

Third, The personal property of literary, benevolent, chari- 
table and scientific institutions and temperance societies incor- 
porated within this Commonwealth, and the real estate belong- 
ing to such institutions occupied by them or their officers for 
the purposes for which they were incorporated ; but such real 
estate when purchased by such a corporation with a view to 
removal thereto, shall not, prior to such removal, be exempt 
for a longer period than two years ; but none of the real or 
personal estate of such corporations organized under general 
laws shall be exempt when any portion of the income or profits 
of the business of such corporations is divided among their 
members or stockholders or used or appropriated for other 
than literary, educational, benevolent, charitable, scientific or 
religious purposes. The personal property and real estate 
belonging to grand army and veteran associations incorporated 



232 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

within this Commonwealth for the purpose of owning property 
for the use and occupation by posts of the grand army of the 
republic shall, to the extent of twenty thousand dollars,, if the 
same shall be in actual use and occupation by such associa- 
tions, be deemed to be the property of charitable institutions, 
and exempt from taxation, provided the net income from said 
property is used for charitable purposes in aid of needy sol- 
diers of the war of the rebellion, aud their dependents. Sts. 
1889, ch. 465. 

An institution for the education of boys, consisting of a 
farm, which was used to sustain the scholars, and upon which 
they worked is exempt from taxation. Mount Sermon Boys' 
School v. Gill, 145 Mass. 139. 

An accumulating fund held in trust for the future benefit 
of an incorporated educational institution is exempt from 
taxation. Williston Seminary v. County Commissioners, 147 
Mass. 427. 

A society for the prevention of cruelty to animals is a 
"benevolent" and "charitable" institution, and so is exempt 
from taxation. Mass. Society, etc. v. Boston, 142 Mass. 24. 

Real estate which a corporation organized for the education 
and religious instruction of children owns and permits to be 
used as purely incidental to the management of a parochial 
school situated on another's adjoining property, and entirely 
controlled and supported by others than itself, is not exempt 
from taxation. St. James Educational Institute v. Salem, 153 
Mass. 185. 

If a corporation organized for " the purpose of diffusing 
knowledge and promoting intellectual improvement," occupies 
a hall in a building owned by it for a few evenings only each 
winter, for a course of lectures on literary and scientific sub- 
jects, and during the rest of the year lets the hall for various 
purposes, the estate is not exempt from taxation, although 
the income derived from letting the hall is devoted exclusively 
to making provision for such course of lectures. Salem 
Lyceum v. Salem, 154 Mass., 15. 

Fourth, All property belonging to common-school districts, 
the income of which is appropriated to the purposes of 
education. 



ASSESSORS OF TAXES. 233 

Fifth, The Bunker Hill Monument. 

Sixth, The wearing apparel and farming utensils of every 
person ; his household furniture not exceeding one thousand 
dollars in value ; and the necessary tools not exceeding three 
hundred dollars in value of a mechanic. Pub. Stats, ch. 11, 
§ 5, els. 4-6. ' 

Seventh, Houses of religious worship owned by a religious 
society, or held in trust for the use of religious organizations, 
and the pews and furniture (except for parochial purposes) ; 
but portions of such houses appropriated for purposes other 
than religious worship shall be taxed at the value thereof to 
the owners of the houses. Pub. Stats, ch. 11, § 5, cl. 7. 

A parsonage erected for a religious society on its land, and 
near its church edifice, for the use of its ministers as a dwel- 
ling-house exclusively, free of rent, is not exempt from 
taxation. " It is true that it would aid in the support of 
public worship, if the clergyman or other religious instructor 
could be provided with a dwelling for his occupation, but the 
Legislature has not undertaken to exempt that which would 
do this, but the house of religious worship only." Devens, J., 
in Third Congregational Soc. v. Springfield, 147 Mass., 396. 

Eighth, Cemeteries, tombs, and rights of burial, so long as 
the same shall be dedicated for the burial of the dead. Pub. 
Stats, ch. 11, § 5, cl. 8. 

Ninth, The estate, both real and personal, of incorporated 
agricultural societies. Such portions of real estate and build- 
ings belonging to incorporated horticultural societies as are 
used for their offices, libraries, and exhibitions, are exempt 
from taxation. Pub. Stats, ch. 11, § 5, cl. 9 ; Sts. 1884, ch. 
176. 

This exemption is not extended to sewer, nor to highway 
assessments. Mt. Auburn Cemetery v. Cambridge, 150 Mass. 
12, at p. 18. 

Tenth, The property, to the amount of five hundred dollars, 
of a widow or unmarried woman above the age of twenty-one 
years, of any person above the age of seventy-five years, and 
of any minor whose father is deceased, whether such property 
be owned by such person separately, or jointly, or as tenant in 
common with another or others: provided, that the whole 



234 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

estate real and personal of such person does not exceed in 
value the sum of one thousand dollars exclusive of property 
otherwise exempted under the provisions of this section ; and 
provided, further, that no property shall be so exempted which 
in the judgment of the assessors has been conveyed to such 
person for the purpose of evading taxation. A person ag- 
grieved by such judgment may appeal to the county commis- 
sioners wdthin the time and in the manner allowed by law for 
an appeal in respect of the abatement of taxes. Sts. 1885, ch. 
169. 

Eleventh, Mules, horses, and neat cattle, less than one year 
old ; and swine and sheep less than six months old. 

Twelfth, The polls and any portion of the estates of persons 
who by reason of age, infirmity, and poverty, are in the judg- 
ment of the assessors unable to contribute fully towards the 
public charges. Pub. Stats, ch. 11, § 5, els. 11, 12. 

A corporation established to manage and apply a fund 
towards the support of a minister, either by paying the same 
directly, in whole or in part, to the minister or to the treasurer 
of the parish, or otherwise to the use of the parish and for 
their relief and benefit, is not, it seems, a " charitable " insti- 
tution within the meaning of the third clause of this section. 
Trustees of Greene Foundation v. City of Boston, 12 Cush. 59. 

A dwelling-house built by the corporation of Harvard Col- 
lege, one of the institutions included in the third clause of 
this section, on land of the corporation within the college 
yard and leased to one of the professors, to be occupied by 
him as a residence for himself and family at an annual rent, 
is not exempt from taxation. But it would be otherwise if 
the building had been built for one of the professors or officers 
of the college, and had been occupied by him with the permis- 
sion of the college, and without having any estate therein, 
or paying any rent therefor. Pierce v. Cambridge, 2 Cush. 
611. 

Land taken for public uses is exempt from taxation ; that 
is, where a public duty is imposed upon those taking it, or 
they are charged with a public trust. Under this exemption 
is included land taken by a railroad company under its loca- 
tion, and the buildings and structures erected thereon, if they 



ASSESSORS OF TAXES. 235 

are reasonably necessary to its proper and convenient use as 
a railroad. Worcester v. Western R. R. Co., 4 Met. 564 ; 
Boston $ Maine R. R. Co. v. Cambridge, 8 Cush. 237. 

Land purchased in fee or otherwise taken by a city by 
authority of the Legislature for the purpose of supplying the 
city with pure water, and used for that purpose only, is exempt. 
Wayland v. County Commissioners, 4 Gray, 500. 

" Where a person accepts the position of trustee, and holds 
property merely in trust for purposes which of themselves do 
not entitle the property to exemption from taxation, he stands 
in respect to such property no better than an individual trustee 
would stand." Salem Marine Society v. Salem, 155 Mass. 
329, at p. 330. 

§ 661. All plantations of chestnut, hickory, white ash, 
white oak, sugar maple, European larch, and pine timber trees, 
in number not less than two thousand trees to the acre, upon 
land (not at the time of said planting woodland or sprout- 
land, and not having been such within five years previously), 
the actual value of which at the time of planting does not ex- 
ceed fifteen dollars per acre, shall together with the land upon 
which the same are situated be exempt from taxation for a 
period of ten years from and after said trees have grown in 
height four feet on the average subsequently to such planting : 
provided, that said exemption shall not extend beyond the 
time during which said land is devoted exclusively to the 
growth of said trees, and that the owner or owners of such 
plantations appear and prove to the satisfaction of the board 
of assessors in the towns where the same are located the 
existence of said conditions. 

§ 662. Ships and vessels engaged in the foreign carrying 
trade shall not for the purposes of taxation be included in the 
personal estate of persons to be taxed ; but the net yearly 
income of such ships or vessels shall be taxed to the owner or 
owners thereof in their places of residence proportionally to 
their interest therein. No ship or vessel unless actually 
engaged in such trade, or in port undergoing repairs, shall be 
deemed to be engaged in said trade within the meaning of this 
section. 

§ 663. The provisions of the preceding section shall not 



236 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

apply to any ship or vessel, unless her agent or owner, on or 
before the first day of June in each year, returns in writing, 
under his oath, to the assessors of each city and town in the 
Commonwealth in which an owner of any share or interest in 
the ship or vessel resided on the first day of May in said year, 
the name of such owner, the name, class, and tonnage of the 
ship or vessel, the fact that she was on said first day of May 
engaged in the foreign carrying trade within the meaning of 
said section, the share or interest of such owner therein, and 
the dividends paid him upon his said share or interest during 
the year ending on said first day of May ; and such dividends 
shall constitute the net yearly income to be taxed to such owner 
as provided in said section. Pub. Stats, ch. 11, §§ 7-9. 

§ 664. The assessors of any city or town may, on or before 
the first day of September in any year before the year eighteen 
hundred and ninety three, make a return, under oath, to the 
tax commissioner, showing the amount of its taxable valuation 
on the preceding first day of May, the fair cash value of the 
ships and vessels returned to them in said year under the pre- 
ceding section, the net income therefrom so returned, the rate 
of tax on each one thousand dollars in said year, and the 
increase in said rate arising under the provisions of the two 
preceding sections; and the commissioner shall thereupon 
credit to the city or town, as a set-off to any tax or other pay- 
ment to be made by it to the treasurer of the Commonwealth, 
an amount equal to an assessment of said increase in the rate 
of tax upon the amount of said taxable valuation. Pub. Stats. 
ch. 11, § 10; Sts. 1891, ch. 116. 

(c) Where Polls and Property shall be Assessed. 

§ 665. The poll-tax shall be assessed upon each taxable 
person in the place where he is an inhabitant on the first day 
of May in each year, except in cases otherwise provided for 
by law. The poll-tax of minors liable to taxation shall be 
assessed to, and in the places of the residence of, the parents, 
masters, or guardians having control of the persons of such 
minors ; but if a minor has no parent, master, or guardian 
within the Commonwealth, he shall be personally taxed for 
his poll, as if he were of full age. The poll-tax of every other 



ASSESSORS OF TAXES. 237 

person under guardianship shall be assessed to his guardian in 
the place where the guardian is taxed for his own poll. In 
cities each inhabitant liable to assessment shall be assessed in 
the ward where he dwells ; but no tax shall be invalid by reason 
of a mistake of the assessors in ascertaining the ward in which 
a person should be assessed. Pub. Stats, ch. 11. § 11. 

First, " every person has a domicil somewhere, and no per- 
son can have more than one domicil at the same time for one 
and the same purpose." Second, " a man retains his domicil of 
origin till he changes it by acquiring another, and so each suc- 
cessive domicil continues until changed by acquiring another." 
Opinion of the Judges of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massa- 
chusetts, 5 Met. 587 ; Otis v. City of Boston, 12 Cush. 50. 

It is equally well settled, that in order to change the domicil 
the fact and intent must concur, — neither alone is sufficient ; 
by which it must be intended that there needs to be a change of 
residence, with an intention to remain in the new place of resi- 
dence an indefinite time, and without the intention of returning 
to the former domicil at any particular period, or when any 
particular purpose is accomplished. Bulkley v. Williamstown, 
3 Gray, 495 ; Holmes v. Grreene, 7 Gray, 300. 

§ 666. A taxable person who is in a city or town on the 
first day of May, and who, when inquired of by the assessors 
thereof, refuses to state where he considers his legal residence 
to be, shall for the purpose of taxation be deemed an inhabi- 
tant of such place. If, when so inquired of, he designates 
another place as his legal residence, said assessors shall notify 
the assessors of such place, who, upon receiving the notice, 
shall tax such person as an inhabitant of their city or town. 
But such person shall not be exempt from the payment of a 
tax legally assessed upon him in the city or town of his legal 
domicil. Pub. Stats, ch. 11, § 12. 

§ 667. For the purpose of assessing and collecting taxes 
on real estate the persons appearing in the records of the 
county where the real estate lies as the owners thereof on the 
first day of May, even if deceased, shall be held to be the true 
owners thereof. Taxes on real estate shall be assessed, in the 
city or town where the estate lies, to the person who is either 
the owner or in possession thereof on the first day of May. 



238 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

Mortgagors of real estate shall, for the purposes of taxation, 
except as provided in the three following sections, be deemed 
owners until the mortgagee takes possession, after which the 
mortgagee shall, except as provided in said sections, be deemed 
the owner. Sts. 1889, § 84. 

The real estate of banks and manufacturing corporations is 
to be taxed to them in the place where it is situated. Tremont 
Bank v. Boston, 1 Cush. 142 ; Bunnell Manufacturing Corpo- 
ration v. Pawtueket, 7 Gray, 277. 

The obligation of a person to pay a tax depends upon his 
title on May first; and the fact that the tax is not actually 
assessed until after that day is immaterial. Kearns v. Cunniff, 
138 Mass. 434. 

If a person buys a parcel of land at a tax-collector's sale, 
and receives a deed thereof, which is recorded, before the first 
day of May, and no other transfer of the parcel is made until 
after that date, he is the " person appearing of record as the 
owner," and a tax upon the land is properly assessed to him, 
although the former had on the said first day of May a right 
to redeem the land. Butler v. Stark, 139 Mass. 19. 

A widow who has only a right of dower in a parcel of land, 
which right of dower has not been assigned to her, is not the 
person " in possession," and so is not liable for the tax upon 
the land. Lynde v. Broivn, 143 Mass. 337. 

If a husband and wife with their children live together on 
the wife's real estate, the husband is presumed to be the one 
in possession, and the taxes on the property are properly 
assessed to him. Southworth v. Edrnands, 152 Mass. 203. 

§ 668. When any person has an interest in real estate (not 
exempt from taxation under the statements in § 660 ante) as 
holder of a duly recorded mortgage given to secure the pay- 
ment of money, the amount of which is fixed and certain, the 
amount of his interest as mortgagee shall be assessed as real 
estate in the place where the land lies ; and the mortgagor 
shall be assessed only for the value of said real estate after 
deducting the assessed value of all such mortgagee's interests 
therein. When such property is situated in two or more 
places, the amount of the mortgagee's interest to be assessed 
in each place shall be proportioned to the assessed value in 



ASSESSORS OF TAXES. 239 

the respective places of the mortgaged real estate, deducting 
therefrom the taxable amount of prior mortgages, if any, 
thereon. Pub. Stats, ch. 11, § 14 ; Sts. 1882, ch. 175, § 3. 

§ 669. If any holder of such a mortgage fails to file in the 
assessors' office a statement under oath of all his estate liable 
to taxation under the preceding section, including a statement 
of the full amount remaining unpaid upon such mortgage and 
of his interest therein, the amount stated in the mortgage 
shall be conclusive as to the extent of such interest ; but the 
mortgagees' interests in such real estate shall not be assessed 
at a greater sum than the fair cash valuation of the land and 
the structures thereon or affixed thereto ; and the amount of a 
mortgage interest in an estate that has been divided after the 
creation of such mortgage shall not be required to be appor- 
tioned upon the several parts of such estate, except as stated 
in §§ 643 and 644 ante. Pub. Stats, ch. 11, § 15. 

§ 670. Mortgagors and mortgagees referred to in the two 
preceding sections shall, for the purposes of taxation, be 
deemed joint owners until the mortgagee takes possession ; 
and until such possession is taken by a first mortgagee, the 
assessors or the collector of taxes, upon application to any one 
of them, shall give to any such mortgagee or mortgagor a 
tax-bill showing the whole tax on the mortgaged estate, and 
the amount included in the valuation thereof as the interest 
of each mortgagee and of the mortgagor respectively. If the 
first mortgagee is in possession, he shall be deemed sole 
owner ; and any. other mortgagee in possession shall be deemed 
joint owner with prior mortgagees. Pub. Stats, ch. 11, § 16. 

" These provisions apply to corporations who are mortgagees, 
as well as to natural persons. Thus in determining the basis 
on which to levy the tax on the franchise of a corporation, the 
value of the mortgages held by the corporation and subject to 
local taxation, must be deducted from the aggregate value of 
the shares of the company." Morton, C. J., in Firemen's 
Insurance Co. v. Com., 137 Mass. 80. 

§ 671. The undivided real estate of a deceased person may 
be assessed to his heirs or devisees without designating any of 
them by name, until they have given notice to the assessors 
of the division of the estate and of the names of the several 



240 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

heirs or devisees ; and each heir or devisee shall he liable for 
the whole of such tax, and when paid by him he may recover 
of the other heirs or devisees their respective portions thereof. 
Pub. Stats, ch. 11, § 18. 

When it appeared of record that the real estate of a deceased 
person had become vested in devisees, who were not his heirs, 
the tax could not properly be assessed to the heirs of the 
deceased, and the tax sales of the land are void. Tobin v. 
Gillespie, 152 Mass. 219. 

§ 672. The real estate of a person deceased, the right or 
title to which is doubtful or unascertained by reason of litiga- 
tion concerning the will of the deceased, or the validity thereof, 
may be assessed in general terms to the estate of the deceased ; 
and said tax shall constitute a lien upon the land so assessed, 
and may be enforced by the sale of the same or a part thereof, 
as provided for enforcing other liens for taxes on real estate. 
Pub. Stats, ch. 11. § 19. 

§ 673. All personal estate, within or without the Common- 
wealth, shall be assessed to the owner in the city or town where 
he is an inhabitant on the first day of May, except as is stated in 
§§ 680-689 post and in the following clauses of this section : — 

First, All goods, wares, merchandise, and other stock in 
trade (except ships or vessels owned by a copartnership), 
including stock employed in the business of manufacturing or 
of the mechanic arts, in cities or towns within the Common- 
wealth other than where the owners reside, whether such 
owners reside within or without the Commonwealth, shall be 
taxed in those places where the owners hire or occupy manu- 
factories, stores, shops, or wharves, whether such property is 
within said places or elsewhere on the first day of May of the 
year when the tax is made. Pub. Stats, ch. 11, § 20, cl. 1. 

It makes no difference that the property belongs to a firm 
one of whose partners resides in the town where the property 
is situated. To constitute an occupation, there must be an 
actual possession, use, and efficient control of the premises ; 
such an occupation as one who owns or hires would ordinarily 
have. Lee v. Templeton, 6 Gray, 579. 

The interest of an inhabitant of this Commonwealth, as a 
partner, in the property of a firm established and carrying on 



ASSESSORS OF TAXES. 241 

business in another state is taxable here. Bemis v. Aldermen 
of Boston, 14 Allen, 366. 

This clause and the third below do not apply to corporations 
chartered by this state, as the stockholders are liable to taxa- 
tion upon their shares in the towns where they dwell, but it 
is applicable to property owned by a foreign corporation. 
Middlesex B. B. Co. v. Chariest own, 8 Allen, 333 ; Blaekstone 
Manuf. Co. y. Blaekstone, 13 Gray, 488. 

A dealer in ice had a storehouse in which his ice was kept, 
in a town other than that in which he resided. Held, that 
the building in which the ice was kept was not a " store " and 
that the ice was not taxable to him in that town. Hitting er 
v. Westford, 135 Mass. 258. 

The office furniture, etc., of a foreign corporation at its place 
of business in this Commonwealth, is taxable as " stock in 
trade," and such place of business is a " shop." Boston Loan 
Co. v. Boston, 137 Mass. 332. 

" Stock in trade " must be domiciled in the place where the 
owner has his " store " or " shop " in order to be taxable to 
him there. Hittinger v. Boston, 139 Mass. 17. 

Plaintiff had a store in L., where he did not reside. From 
this store he leased sewing machines to people in L. Held, 
The sewing machines were " stock in trade " within the 
meaning of the preceding clause. For by the contract under 
which possession of the machines was delivered the general 
and taxable property in them remained in the plaintiff and 
was held for the purpose of the business carried on at his 
store, as fully as if the machines had remained in the store. 
Singer Manuf. Co. v. County Commissioners, 139 Mass. 266. 

A keeper of cattle for a railroad company, who was a resi- 
dent of another town and who owned and employed certain 
property in performing his duties, storing the necessary hay 
and grain in a barn on the premises, and who was also a 
member of a firm of cattle dealers which was permitted to 
use an office for transacting its business at the yard, is not 
liable to pay a tax on such property as " stock in trade ; " nor 
did he or the firm occupy a " store " or " shop " at the yard 
within the exception of this section. Farwell v. Hathaway, 
151 Mass. 243. 

16 



242 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

Second, All machinery employed in any branch of manu- 
factures shall be assessed where such machinery is situated 
or employed ; and in assessing the stockholders for their 
shares in any manufacturing corporation, there shall first be 
deducted from the value thereof the value of the machinery 
and real estate belonging to such corporation. Pub. Stats. 
ch. 11, § 20, cl. 2. 

This clause does not apply to foreign corporations. Divight 
v. Mayor, etc. of Boston, 12 Allen, 316. 

The cutting of ice and storing it in a building is not a 
" manufacture " so that the machinery employed therein is 
taxable to the owner. Hittinger v. Westford, 135 Mass. 258. 

A portable steam saw-mill temporarily located in a town 
on the first day of May is not taxable there as " machinery 
employed in any branch of manufactures " and " situated or 
employed " there, within the meaning of this section ; nor can 
its product in timber and sawed lumber be taxed there if the 
owner's temporary occupancy of land with the saw-mill is the 
only evidence that he there occupied a " manufactory," 
" store," or " shop," or " wharf." Ingram v. Cowles, 150 
Mass. 155. 

Movable copper rolls, mills, and dies used in a calico print- 
ing factory for printing cloth are not necessarily parts of the 
machinery in the factory for purposes of taxation. Lowell v. 
County Commissioners, 152 Mass. 372. 

Third, Horses, mules, neat cattle, sheep, and swine, kept 
throughout the year in places other than those where the 
owners reside, whether such owners reside within or without 
the Commonwealth, and horses employed in stages or other 
vehicles for the transportation of passengers for hire, shall be 
assessed to the owners in the places where they are kept. 
Pub. Stats, ch. 11, § 20, cl. 3. 

The owner of a farm situated in two towns, his house being 
in one and his barn in another, is taxable in the latter for his 
horses which are habitually kept, fed and watered in the barn, 
although used on the entire farm. Pierce v. Eddy, 152 Mass. 
594. 

Fourth, Personal property belonging to persons under 
guardianship shall be assessed to the guardian in the place 



ASSESSORS OF TAXES. 243 

where the ward is an inhabitant, unless the ward resides and 
has his home without the Commonwealth, in which case it 
shall be taxed to the guardian in the place where he is an 
inhabitant. Pub. Stats, ch. 11, § 20, cl. 4. 

The same rules would seem to be applicable in determining 
the place where a ward is an inhabitant, as in the case of any 
other citizen. Kirkland v. Whateley, 4 Allen, 462. 

Fifth, Personal property held in trust by an executor, admin- 
istrator or trustee, the income of which is payable to another 
person, shall be assessed to the executor, administrator, or 
trustee in the place where such other person resides, if within 
the Commonwealth, and if he resides out of the Common- 
wealth it shall be assessed in the place where the executor, 
administrator, or trustee resides, and if there are two or more 
executors, administrators, or trustees residing in different 
places, the property shall be assessed to them in equal por- 
tions in such places, and the tax thereon shall be paid out of 
said income. If the executor, administrator, or trustee is not 
an inhabitant of the Commonwealth, it shall be assessed to 
the person to whom the income is payable, in the place where 
he resides. Pub. Stats, ch. 11, § 20, cl. 5. 

Personal property held in trust is taxable to the trustee, 
if within the Commonwealth. Williston Seminary v. County 
Commissioners, 147 Mass. 427. 

For the purpose of taxation under this clause, when the 
cestui que trust is a partnership, the place where the partner- 
ship resides is the place where its business is carried on. 
Richer v. American Loan and Trust Co., 140 Mass. 346. 

Sixth, Personal property placed in the hands of a corpora- 
tion or individual as an accumulating fund for the future bene- 
fit of heirs or other persons shall be assessed to such heirs or 
persons, if within the Commonwealth, otherwise to the person 
so placing it, or his executors or administrators, until a trustee 
is appointed to take charge of such property or the income 
thereof. Pub. Stats, ch. 11, § 20, cl. 6. 

Seventh, The personal estate of deceased persons shall be 
assessed in the place where the deceased last dwelt. Before 
the appointment of an executor or administrator it shall be 
assessed in general terms to the estate of the deceased, and 



244 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

the executor or administrator subsequently appointed shall be 
liable for the tax so assessed in like manner as though assessed 
to him. After such appointment it shall be assessed to such 
executor or administrator for the space of three years, unless 
the same has been distributed and notice of such distribution 
has been given to the assessors, stating the name, residence, 
and amount paid to the several parties interested in the estate 
who are inhabitants of the Commonwealth. After three years 
from the date of such appointment it shall be assessed accord- 
ing to the provisions of the fifth clause of this section. Pub. 
Stats, ch. 11, § 20, cl. 7. 

A tax is not lawfully assessed to the " estate of " a deceased 
person after the date of the appointment of the administrator. 
Wood v. Torrey, 97 Mass. 321. 

Eighth, Personal property taxable as such, held in trust 
by an assignee or assignees under the insolvent law or any 
bankrupt law or under any voluntary assignment for the benefit 
of creditors, shall be assessed to such assignee or assignees in 
the place where the insolvent bankrupt or assignor had his 
principal place of business ; and if he had no such place of 
business, then in the place of his residence. 

Ninth, Personal property of joint owners or tenants in com- 
mon other than partners shall be assessed to such owners, 
according to their respective interests, in the place where they 
respectively reside. Sts. 1882, ch. 165. 

Tenth, All machines employed in any branch of manufac- 
tures and used or operated under a stipulation providing for 
the payment of a royalty or compensation in the nature of a 
royalty for the privilege of using or operating the same, shall 
be assessed where such machines are situated or employed to 
the owner or any person, firm, or corporation in possession of 
the same on the first day of May. Sts. 1887, ch. 125. 

§ 674. When personal property belonging to two or more 
persons under guardianship, or personal property held in trust 
by an executor, administrator, or trustee, the income of which 
is payable to two or more persons, or personal property placed 
in the hands of a corporation or individual as an accumulating 
fund for the future benefit of two or more heirs or other per- 
sons, is assessed under the preceding section by the assessors 



ASSESSORS OF TAXES. 245 

of any city or town, in whole or in part, they shall, upon 
being requested in writing within the time specified by them 
for the bringing in of lists as stated in § 601 ante, and being 
therein informed of the names, domicils, and proportionate 
shares of such wards, cestuis que trust, heirs, or other persons, 
make separate assessments in such manner as to distinguish 
how much of such personal property is assessed in respect to 
each. If any such assessment is illegally made, an action at 
law shall lie to recover back the taxes paid thereon, in the 
same manner as in other cases of illegal assessment. 

§ 675. Property held by a religious society as a ministerial 
fund shall be assessed to the treasurer of the society. If such 
property consists of real estate, it shall be taxed in the town 
where it lies ; if it consists of personal property, it shall be 
taxed in the town where such society usually holds its meet- 
ings. Pub. Stats, ch. 11, §§ 21, 22. 

§ 676. Personal property mortgaged or pledged shall, for 
the purposes of taxation, be deemed the property of the party 
who has the possession. Pub. Stats, ch. 11, § 23. 

This section applies only to corporeal, visible, and tangible 
property, of which either party may take open possession ; and 
not to incorporeal hereditaments or rights, which are incap- 
able of such possession, — and therefore not to public stocks 
or securities. Waltham Bank v. Waltham, 10 Met. 340 ; Mall 
v. Commissioners, 10 Allen, 100. 

§ 677. Partners in mercantile or other business, whether 
residing in the same or in different places, may be jointly 
taxed under their partnership name, in the place where their 
business is carried on, for all the personal property employed 
in such business, except ships or vessels, and except bank 
shares taxed as is stated in §§ 680-689 post. If partners 
have places of business in two or more towns, they shall be 
taxed in each of such places for the proportion of property 
employed therein. When so jointly taxed, each partner shall 
be liable for the whole tax. Pub. Stats, ch. 11, § 24. 

It seems that the term " place of business " must be under- 
stood as a place where business is carried on by the tax-payer 
under his own control and on his own account. Little v. 
Cambridge, 9 Cush. 301. 



246 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

A firm, one member of which resided in B. and the other 
in N., had an office in B. where its office business was trans- 
acted, and a very limited amount of retail business. One of 
its factories was in W. and the goods made at W. were stored 
there and sold on orders from B. Held: The plaintiffs 
had a " place of business " in W., within the meaning of the 
statute, namely, a factory where they made the starch which 
was stored there until sold. The property was employed in 
the plaintiff's business in W. and was properly taxable there 
under the provisions of the above section. Barker v. Water- 
town, 137 Mass. 227. 

§ 678. Ships or vessels owned by a partnership shall be 
assessed to the several partners in their places of residence, 
proportionally to their interests therein, if they reside within 
the Commonwealth ; but the interests of the several partners 
who reside without the Commonwealth shall be assessed to 
the partnership in the place where its business is carried on. 

§ 679. Keepers of taverns and boarding-houses, and mas- 
ters and mistresses of dwelling-houses, shall, upon application 
of an assessor in the place where their house is situated, give 
information of the names of all persons residing therein and 
liable to be assessed for taxes. Pub. Stats, ch. 11, §§ 25, 30. 

(d) Taxation of Bank Shares. 

§ 680. All the shares of stock in banks, whether of issue 
or not, existing by authority of the United States or of the 
Commonwealth, and located within the Commonwealth, shall 
be assessed to the owners thereof in the cities or towns where 
such banks are located, and not elsewhere, in the assessment 
of all state, county, and town taxes imposed and levied in such 
place, whether such owner is a resident of said city or town or 
not ; all such shares shall be assessed at their fair cash value 
on the first day of May, first deducting therefrom the propor- 
tionate part of the value of the real estate belonging to the 
bank, at the same rate, and no greater, than that at which 
other moneyed, capital in the hands of citizens and subject to 
taxation is by law assessed. And the persons or corporations 
who appear from the records of the banks to be owners of 
shares at the close of the business day next preceding the first 



ASSESSORS OF TAXES. 247 

day of May in each year shall be taken and deemed to be the 
owners thereof for the purposes of this section. 

§ 681. Every such bank or other corporation shall pay to 
the collector, or other person authorized to collect the taxes 
of the city or town in which the same is located, at the time 
in each year when other taxes assessed in the said city or 
town become due, the amount of the tax so assessed in such 
year upon the shares in such bank or other corporation. If 
such tax is not so paid, the said bank or other corporation 
shall be liable for the same ; and the said tax, with interest 
thereon at the rate of twelve per cent per annum from the day 
when the tax became due, may be recovered in an action of 
contract brought by the treasurer of such city or town. 

§ 682. The shares of such banks or other corporations 
shall be subject to the tax paid thereon by the corporation or 
by the officers thereof, and the corporation and the officers 
thereof shall have a lien on all the shares in such bank or 
other corporation, and on all the rights and property of the 
shareholders in the corporate property for the payment of 
said taxes. 

§ 683. The cashier of every such bank shall make and 
deliver to the assessors of the city or town in which such bank 
is located, on or before the tenth day of May in each year, a 
statement verified by the oath of such cashier showing the 
name of each shareholder, with his residence and the number 
of shares belonging to him at the close of the business day 
next preceding the first day of May, as the same then appeared 
on the books of said bank. If the cashier fails to make such 
statement, said assessors shall forthwith, upon such failure, 
obtain a list of shareholders, with the residence of, and 
number of shares belonging to each. 

In either case the assessors shall, immediately upon obtain- 
ing such list or statement, transmit to the tax commissioner a 
true copy of the same ; and shall, by notice in writing, inform 
said commissioner of the rate per cent upon the valuation of 
the city or town of the total tax in such city or town for the 
year, immediately upon the ascertainment thereof, and also of 
the amount assessed by them upon the shares of each bank 
located therein. 



248 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

§ 684. Said commissioner shall thereupon, as soon as may- 
be, determine from the returns and otherwise the proportionate 
amount of the tax so assessed upon the shares in each of said 
banks, which has been assessed upon shares which, according 
to the provisions stated in §§ 591-679 ante would not be 
taxable in said city or town ; and such amounts, as finally 
determined under the provisions of this chapter, shall be a 
charge to said city or town as an offset against any payments 
to be made from the treasury of the Commonwealth to said 
city or town. 

§ 685. Said commissioner shall, in like manner, determine 
the proportionate amount of tax so assessed upon shares in 
each of said banks, which, according to the provisions 
stated in §§ 591-679 ante would be taxable in each city or 
town in this Commonwealth other than that in which the bank 
is located ; and such amounts, as finally determined under 
the provisions of this chapter, shall become a credit to such 
city or town. 

§ 686. Said commissioner shall, by written or printed 
notice delivered at the assessors' office or sent by mail, inform 
the assessors of each city or town affected thereby of the 
aggregate amount of charges and credits against and in favor 
of such city or town, under the two preceding sections, as 
determined by him, forthwith, upon the determination thereof. 
From this determination an appeal may be made by said 
assessors, within the time hereinafter provided, to the board 
of appeal constituted under the provisions of section sixty-two 
chapter thirteen of the Public Statutes. 

§ 687. Said commissioner shall, at the expiration of ten 
days after notice given as provided in the preceding section, 
or upon being informed of the decision of the board of appeal, 
if an appeal is made, certify to the treasurer and receiver- 
general the aggregate amount of charges mentioned in § 684 
ante against each city and town, and also the aggregate of 
credits mentioned in § 685 ante in favor of each city or town, 
as finally determined under the three preceding sections ; and 
the treasurer shall thereupon withhold out of any sums of 
money which are or may become payable out of the state 
treasury to any city or town against which a charge is certi- 



ASSESSORS OF TAXES. 249 

fied the amount so certified, and shall allow or pay over to 
each city or town in favor of which a credit is certified the 
amount so certified. 

§ 688. In the adjustment and determination of amounts 
due under the provisions of this chapter in relation to the 
taxation of bank shares, an allowance of one per cent upon 
the amount so assessed and collected shall be made for the 
expenses of assessing and collecting the same ; and no city or 
town shall be entitled in any year to an allowance of credits 
or payments under any of the provisions of this chapter until 
the assessors thereof have complied with the requirements of 
this chapter and those of § 596 ante in relation to the taxation 
of bank shares. No bank, the shares in which are taxable 
as stated in § 680 ante, shall be subject to taxation under 
the provisions of section forty, chapter thirteen Public Statutes,' 
nor shall the shareholders be taxable in respect to their shares 
therein for state, county, or town purposes, except under the 
provisions of this chapter. Pub. Stats, ch. 13, §§ 8-16. 

§ 689. The assessors of each city or town, upon request of 
any person resident in such city or town, who is the owner of 
any shares in such banks or other corporations which, under 
the provisions as stated in the tenth and twelfth divisions of 
§ 660 ante, would be entitled to exemption from taxation, shall 
give such owner a certificate setting forth such fact ; and the 
treasurer of such city or town, upon request therefor and the 
deposit with him of such certificate, shall pay over to such 
owner the amount so collected in respect of such shares, im- 
mediately upon the allowance made to such city or town 
under the provisions of this chapter in relation to the taxation 
of bank shares. Pub. Stats, ch. 13, § 19. 

The shares in a national bank, of stockholders who reside 
in a regularly organized fire district in the town in which the 
bank is located, cannot be subjected to a tax for fire district 
purposes. 

" In view of the fact that the statute makes provision only for 
the taxation of bank shares for state, county, and town purpo- 
ses, and of the apparent intention that all the shares shall bear 
the same burden, the plaintiff cannot maintain his action." 
Devens, J., in Rich Y.Packard National Bank, 138 Mass. 527. 



250 THE TOWN OFFICER. 



CHAPTER VII. 

OVERSEERS OF THE POOR. 

THE CARE AND SUPPORT OF PAUPERS. 

(a) Town Paupers. 

§ 690. Every city and town shall relieve and support all 
poor and indigent persons lawfully settled therein, whenever 
they stand in need thereof. Pub. Stats, ch. 84, § 1. 

But they may be supported in another place. Smith v. 
Peabody, 106 Mass. 262. 

" It has been too often decided to be now questioned, that 
the liability of towns to support poor persons is founded upon 
and limited by statute, and is not to be enlarged or modified 
by any supposed moral obligation. By this we understand, 
not that there is no moral obligation on all men in society to 
contribute to the support of the poor, but that towns are cor- 
porations, for limited and well-defined purposes, and that the 
duty of supporting the poor is not more binding upon them 
than upon parishes, Counties, the state, or other organized 
bodies, further than such duty is created by law." " The first 
great object of the law, founded on the principle of simple 
humanity, is, that the party standing in need shall have relief 
immediately, and at the place where it is required ; that is, 
from the overseers of the town where he is residing, or is 
found, without regard to their ultimate liability. The person 
in distress shall not be compelled to wait- till notice can be 
given to a distant town, and whilst, perhaps, a controversy is 
subsisting as to its liability. And to insure such relief, if the 
overseers neglect or refuse, on notice, to afford it, any person, 
not himself liable for such relief, may afford it at the expense 
of the town." Shaw, C. J., in Smith v. Colerain, 9 Met. 492. 

Municipal corporations are only authorized to furnish relief 
to those who, when the relief is furnished, may properly be 



OVERSEERS OF THE POOR. 251 

denominated paupers, either from general poverty or present 
temporary necessity requiring such aid ; and when the town 
has, in such cases, furnished necessary supplies, through the 
action of the overseers of the poor, an action will lie at 
common law against the husband, to recover the amount thus 
expended for his wife and minor children. New Bedford v. 
Chace, 5 Gray, 28. 

§ 691. The overseers of the poor shall have the care and 
oversight of all such poor and indigent persons so long as 
they remain at the charge of their respective cities or towns, 
and shall see that they are suitably relieved, supported, and 
employed, either in the workhouse or almshouse, or in such 
other manner as the city or town directs, or otherwise at the 
discretion of said overseers. They may remove to the alms- 
house such children as are suffering destitution from extreme 
neglect of dissolute or intemperate parents or guardians, 
except as hereinafter provided. Pub. Stats, ch. 84, § 2. 

" Overseers of the poor are public officers who commonly 
act under the authority of the law, and not as agents of the 
town. But in some matters they represent the town as its 
agents. They have the care and the custody of the paupers 
in their respective cities and towns, and are to see that they 
are suitably relieved, supported, and employed ; but the city 
or town is to direct the manner and provide the means of 
supporting its paupers. Thus if a town sees fit to buy a farm, 
and cultivate it in connection with an almshouse, there is 
nothing in the statute which gives the overseers of the poor a 
right to manage it without authority from the town." 
Knowlton, J., in Neff v. Wellesley, 148 Mass. 487, at p. 494. 

The overseers of the poor of a town, whose board is annu- 
ally reconstituted, by the retirement of one member and the 
election of another, have no authority while acting as alms- 
house directors to bind the town respecting the management 
of the almshouse for the next municipal year. Reed v. Lan- 
caster, 152 Mass. 500. 

Overseers of the poor, highway surveyors, and selectmen of 
a town, being the same persons, in using an almshouse farm 
with its authority partly for the support of its poor, partly for 
the maintenance of its highway department, and incidentally 



252 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

for the production of income, act as agents of the town, and 
the town is responsible for an injury caused by the negligence 
of a person employed by them on such farm. Neff v. Welles- 
ley, 148 Mass., 487. 

If the municipal authorities of a town have provided supplies 
for distribution among those out of the almshouse who need 
relief, upon orders of the overseers of the poor, and have 
given notice thereof to the overseers, the latter have no 
authority to contract debts in behalf of the town for the sup- 
port of the poor ; and one who, having knowledge of the 
facts, furnishes supplies to persons settled in such town, upon 
order of the overseers, cannot maintain an action against the 
town to recover the same. But, if he furnishes supplies upon 
such orders to persons settled elsewhere, he may recover from 
the town the amount actually received by it on account of 
such supplies, from the towns which were liable to support 
the persons who were relieved thereby. Ireland, Jr., v. New- 
bury port, 8 Allen, 73. 

§ 692. The overseers of the poor shall not commit to nor 
detain in any almshouse, private dwelling, or other place, 
without remedial treatment, any insane person whose insanity 
has continued for a period less than twelve months ; and 
within seven days from the admission or discharge of any 
insane person in their care, to or from any almshouse, private 
dwelling or other place, said overseers shall report in writing 
such admission or discharge to the state board of lunacy and 
charity. All persons suffering from recent insanity shall 
have the opportunity of medical treatment in some hospital or 
asylum, under the direction of a physician qualified according 
to the provisions of section thirteen of chapter eighty-seven of 
the Public Statutes, if they or their friends so desire. Sts. 
1890, ch. 414, § 2. 

§ 693. The overseers of the poor shall have the same 
power and authority over persons placed under their care 
which directors or masters of workhouses have over persons 
committed thereto. Pub. Stats, ch. 84, § 5. 

§ 694. The kindred of such poor persons, in the line or 
degree of father or grandfather, mother or grandmother, 
children or grandchildren, by consanguinity, living in this 



OVERSEERS OF THE POOR. 253 

state, and of sufficient ability, shall be bound to support such 
paupers in proportion to their respective ability. Pub. Stats. 
ch. 84, § 6. 

The words " poor and indigent persons in need of relief," 
" persons in distress and in need of immediate relief," " poor 
person," and " pauper," are used synonymously, except in 
those instances in which the person termed " pauper " is also 
described as having been relieved and supported by a town ; 
and in those instances a technical pauper would have been 
designated if the words " poor person " had been used, instead 
of the word " pauper." The technical meaning is not evinced 
by the use of any special word, but by referring to the per- 
son, or by describing him as one who has received support 
from a town ; which fact constitutes him a technical pauper, 
Hutchings v. Thompson, 10 Cush. 238. 

§ 695. Any city or town which incurs expense for the sup- 
port of a pauper having a settlement therein may recover the 
same against such person, his executors or administrators, in 
an action of contract for money paid, laid out, and expended 
for his use. Sts. 1882, ch. 113. 

Under this statute the plaintiff town can recover for the 
amount expended for the support of the pauper, but it must 
prove that it was required by law to expend the money for the 
pauper's support. Newburyport v. Creedon, 148 Mass. 158. 

§ 696. The overseers of the poor, in their respective places, 
shall provide for the immediate comfort and relief of all per- 
sons residing or found therein, having lawful settlements in 
other places, when they fall into distress and stand in need of 
immediate relief, and until they are removed to the places of 
their lawful settlements ; the expenses whereof, incurred within 
three months next before notice given to the place to be 
charged, as also of their removal or burial in case of their 
decease, may be recovered by the place incurring the same 
against the place liable therefor, in an action at law, to be 
instituted within two years after the cause of action arises, 
but not otherwise. Pub. Stats, ch. 84, § 14. 

This notice is an indispensable prerequisite to the support 
of any action for expenses incurred in the relief of paupers 
by a town in which they are not settled. And the right to 



254 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

recover is expressly limited to a period commencing three 
months before, and continuing two years after notice given. 
Attleborough v. Mansfield, 15 Pick. 19 ; Townsend v. Billerica, 
10 Mass. 411 ; Hallowell v. Harwich, 14 Mass. 186 ; Uxbridge 
v. Seekonk, 10 Pick. 150 ; Reading v. Maiden, 141 Mass. 580. 

A notice given by a town to a city stating that it had 
furnished relief to a mother and three children who had a 
settlement in the city, was held to be insufficient, the mother 
having five minor children at the time. The notice was not 
particular enough. Carver v. Taunton, 152 Mass. 484. 

Under this statute it was held that an insane woman who 
had been supported by her brother and sister and whom the 
brother had reported to the overseers that he was unwilling to 
support longer, did not come within the statute. Templeton 
v. Winchendon, 138 Mass. 109. 

A town which has furnished relief to a person found therein 
and standing in need of immediate relief may recover the 
expenses thereof from the town of his settlement, although 
sufficient provision may have been made for his general support 
by his father's will. Groveland v. Medford, 1 Allen, 23. 

Notice by one town to another of a claim made by the 
treasurer of a state lunatic hospital for the past and future 
support of a pauper is sufficient to support an action for the 
past expenses (though not actually paid until more than three 
months after), but not for expenses of the support of the 
pauper after such notice. Amherst v. Shelburne, 11 Gray, 107. 

§ 697. When a person is supported in a place other than 
that in which he has his settlement, the place liable for his 
support shall not be required to pay therefor more than at the 
rate of two dollars a week, if it causes the pauper to be 
removed within thirty days from the time of receiving legal 
notice that such support has been furnished. Pub. Stats, ch. 
84, § 16. 

This section does not apply to the case of the removal of a 
pauper after his decease, though before burial. Webster v. 
Uxbridge, 13 Met. 198. 

In computing the thirty days, the day on which notice is 
received that the support has been furnished is to be excluded. 
Seekonk v. Rehoboth, 8 Cush. 371. 



OVERSEERS OF THE POOR. 255 

§ 698. The overseers of the poor of each place shall also 
relieve, support, and employ all poor persons residing or found 
therein, having no lawful settlements within this state, until 
their removal to the state almshouse, and in case of their 
decease shall decently bury them; they shall also decently 
bury all such persons who have died without means of sup- 
port, but without applying for public relief while living, and 
all unknown persons found dead ; the expense whereof may 
be recovered of their kindred, if they have any chargeable by 
law for their support, in the manner hereinbefore provided ; 
and if in case of their burial the expense thereof is not paid 
by such kindred, there shall be paid from the treasury of the 
Commonwealth fifteen dollars for the funeral expenses of each 
pauper over twelve years of age, and ten dollars for the funeral 
expenses of each pauper under that age. Pub. Stats, ch. 84, 
§ 17 ; Sts. 1887, ch. 310, § 3 ; Sts. 1890, ch. 71. 

§ 699. A city or town may furnish temporary aid to poor 
persons found therein, having no lawful settlements within 
the state, if the overseers deem it for the public interest ; but, 
except in cases of sickness, not for a longer period than four 
weeks at one time between May first and November first, or 
for a longer period than eight weeks at one time for cases 
notified between November first and May first, or to a greater 
amount than one dollar a week for each person, or five dollars 
a week for each family ; and the overseers shall in every such 
case give immediate notice by mail to the state board of 
lunacy and charity, which board shall examine the case and 
direct as to the continuance of such aid, or removal to the 
state almshouse, or to some place out of the state, either be- 
fore or after removal to the state almshouse, according to law. 
A detailed statement of expenses so incurred shall be ren- 
dered, and after approval by the state board such expenses 
shall be paid from the state treasury. Sts. 1891, ch. 90, § 1. 

§ 700. A city or town may furnish transportation to desti- 
tute shipwrecked seamen from one place to another in this 
state, and the expense of such transportation shall be paid by 
the Commonwealth from the appropriation for the temporary 
support of state paupers, without reference to such seaman's 
legal settlement. Sts. 1886, ch. 179. 



256 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

§ 701. The overseers of the poor or the keepers of alms- 
houses acting under their directions may require any person, 
not a resident of the town or city, applying to them for and 
receiving either food or lodging in an almshouse or other 
place, to perform a reasonable amount of labor in return 
therefor, and may detain such person until such labor is per- 
formed, but not beyond the hour of eleven in the forenoon of 
the day succeeding his application ; and if any such person 
refuses or neglects when so required to perform such labor 
suited to his age, strength, and capacity, or wilfully damages 
any property of such town or city in the charge of such over- 
seers or other officers, he shall be deemed a vagrant, and be 
punishable as such. 

§ 702. A city or town may erect, establish, and maintain 
a hospital for the reception of persons who by misfortune or 
poverty require relief during temporary sickness. City 
councils and selectmen may make such ordinances, rules, and 
regulations as they may deem expedient for the appointment 
of trustees and all other officers, agents, and servants 
necessary for managing such hospital. Pub. Stats, ch. 84, 
§§ 19, 20. 

§ 703. A city or town not maintaining or managing a hos- 
pital is hereby authorized to make a contract with any hospital 
established therein, or in its vicinity, for the reception, care, 
and treatment of persons who by misfortune or poverty require 
relief during temporary sickness, and may make the necessary 
appropriations of money therefor. But nothing herein shall 
add to the compensation now required from the Common- 
wealth, or from any city or town, for the care and treatment 
of any person who shall be chargeable as a pauper to the 
Commonwealth, or to any city or town, or diminish the right 
of the Commonwealth to require the removal of a pauper 
dependent upon it for relief to the state almshouse. Sts. 1890, 
ch. 119. 

§ 704. The overseers of the poor of a city or town, and the 
superintendent and board of trustees of the state almshouse, 
may place deserted and destitute infants in the care of the 
Massachusetts Infant Asylum or St. Mary's Infant Asylum, 
and such sum as may be agreed upon shall be paid for the tern- 



OVERSEERS OF THE POOR. 257 

porary support of such infants ; but such overseers and the 
state board of lunacy and charity shall use all reasonable care 
to collect the cost of such temporary support from parties 
justly chargeable with the same, when they can be ascertained, 
and to remove those infants not born or not having a settle- 
ment in this state. Pub. Stats, ch. 84, § 21 ; Sts. 1883, ch. 
232 ; Sts. 1886, ch. 101, § 4. 

§ 705. Overseers of the poor shall not remove a minor 
under their control beyond the limits of the Commonwealth, 
nor allow such removal, without the approval of the judge of 
the probate court, granted upon application and after due 
notice to all parties interested, and a hearing ; unless such 
minor has a settlement in another state. Nor shall they 
withhold information concerning the maintenance of such 
minor from any person entitled to receive the same. Pub. 
Stats, ch. 84, § 24. 

§ 706. If a person, who has actually become chargeable as 
a pauper to a city or town in which he has a settlement, sub- 
sequently acquires a settlement in a place out of this Common- 
wealth, the overseers of the poor of such city or town may 
cause him to be removed to said place of subsequent settle- 
ment, by a written order directed to any person therein 
designated. Pub. Stats, ch. 84, § 26. 

§ 707. Every city and town shall be held to pay any 
expense necessarily incurred for the relief of a pauper therein 
by any person who is not liable by law for his support, after 
notice and request made to the overseers thereof, and until 
provision is made by them. Pub. Stats, ch. 84, § 27. 

Notice and request made to one member of the board of 
overseers of the poor, intended for them all collectively and 
for him to communicate to them, is a sufficient notice and 
request. Rogers v. Neivhury, 105 Mass. 533. 

The words "necessarily incurred" have been held to 
mean that " the claim must be proved to have been founded 
on the absolute necessity of a pauper ; that is, it must be 
for such needful relief or support as the pauper could not 
otherwise procure or obtain." Bigelow, C. J., in Samson v. 
Newbury port, 14 Allen, 30. 

" The town is rendered liable for the support of a poor 

17 



258 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

person only after notice and request ; not only notice, but 
request, importing a distinct call on the town. This provision 
for notice to the town is of great importance, deeply affecting 
the interests of towns, and is one to which every person claim- 
ing upon the town should be required to give full and complete 
effect. The terms used in the statute, notice and request, 
clearly import that a party, to hold a town responsible for 
support furnished to any person, should be required to give 
express and formal and particular notice to, and make a 
distinct request of, the town." Walker v. Southbridge, 4 
Cush. 199. 

§ 708. The overseers of any place may send a written 
notification, stating the facts relating to any person actually 
become chargeable thereto to one or more of the overseers of 
the place where his settlement is supposed to be, and request- 
ing them to remove him, which they may do by a written 
order directed to any person therein designated, who may 
execute the same. Pub. Stats, ch. 84, § 28. 

" The notice contemplated by the statute is an express and 
formal notice, and the request intended is a distinct request 
that the town provide for the pauper." Knowlton, J., 
in C? Keefe v. Northampton, 145 Mass. 115. 

§ 709. If such removal is not effected by the last mentioned 
overseers within one month after receiving the notice, they 
shall within said one month send to one or more of the over- 
seers requesting such removal a written answer, signed by 
one or more of them, stating therein their objections to the 
removal ; and if they fail so to do, the overseers who requested 
the removal may cause the pauper to be removed to the place 
of his supposed settlement, by a written order directed to any 
person therein designated, who may execute the same ; and 
the overseers of the place to which the pauper is so sent shall 
receive and provide for him ; and such place shall be liable 
for the expenses of his support and removal, to be recovered 
in an action by the place incurring the same, and shall be 
barred from contesting the question of settlement with the 
plaintiffs in such action. Sts. 1891, ch. 90, § 2. 

But all other questions, such as need of relief, are open to 
the defendant. New Bedford v. Hingham, 117 Mass. 445. 



OVERSEERS OF THE POOR. 259 

If a notification is sent, by the overseers of the poor of a 
town which has incurred expense for the relief of a pauper 
found therein, to the overseers of the poor of the town where 
his settlement is supposed to be, requesting his removal, the 
answer must be signed by some one of the overseers ; and if 
it is not so signed, their town will be barred from contesting 
the question of his settlement, although the pauper is not 
actually removed there ; and the answer will not be sufficient 
if signed merely by another person with whom the town has 
contracted for the support of its paupers for that year. Over- 
seers to whom such an answer is sent do not waive the defect 
by sending a reply to the overseers of the other town, under 
the belief that the answer came from one of them, or by sub- 
sequently sending a new notification to them, for the removal 
of the same pauper. Petersham v. Colerain, 9 Allen, 91. 

§ 710. The notification and answer mentioned in the two 
preceding sections may be sent by mail ; and such notification 
or answer, directed to the overseers of the poor of the place 
intended to be notified or answered, postage prepaid, shall be 
deemed a sufficient notice or answer, and shall be considered 
as delivered to the overseers to whom it is directed at the 
time when it is received in the post-office of the place to which 
it is directed, and in which the overseers reside. Pub. Stats, 
ch. 84, § 30. 

§ 711. Upon the death of a pauper who at the time of his 
decease is actually chargeable to a place within this state, the 
overseers of the poor of such place may take possession of all 
his real and personal property ; and if administration is not 
taken upon his estate within thirty days after his decease, the 
overseers may in their own names sell and convey so much 
thereof as may be necessary to repay the expenses incurred 
for the pauper. If any part of such property is withheld from 
said overseers, they may in their own names sue for and re- 
cover possession of the real estate, and shall have the same 
remedy for the recovery of the personal estate or its value 
that an administrator might have in like case. 

§ 712. In all actions and prosecutions founded on the pro- 
visions of the preceding section, the overseers of the poor of any 
place, or any person by writing under their hands appointed, 



260 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

shall appear, prosecute, or defend the same to final judgment 
and execution, in behalf of such place. 

§ 713. Overseers of the poor shall keep full and accurate 
records of the paupers fully supported, the persons relieved 
and partially supported, and the travellers and vagrants 
lodged at the expense of their cities and towns, together with 
the amount paid for such support and relief. Pub. Stats, ch. 
84, §§ 32-34. 

§ 714. They shall make an annual return of the numbers 
of such persons supported and relieved, with the cost of such 
support and relief, and a record of those fully supported, to 
the state board of lunacy and charity, in April in each year, 
for the year ending on the thirty-first day of March preceding. 
Pub. Stats, ch. 84, § 35; Sts. 1886, ch. 101, § 4. 

§ 715. In the year eighteen hundred and eighty-five and in 
every tenth year thereafter the return of the overseers of the 
poor shall contain true and correct answers to the following 
inquiries : — 

What number of persons have been relieved or supported by 
3 T our town during the year ending September 30? Of those, how 
many have a legal settlement in } T our town? Howman} r are foreign 
born? How many of the foreign born are from England and Ire- 
land ? How many state paupers have you sent to the state alms- 
house? How many of the poor assisted in your town or sent to 
state almshouse were foreigners? How many of your insane do 
3'ou support in state lunatic hospitals ? How many of your idiotic 
poor are in the Massachusetts School for Idiotic and Feeble-minded 
Youth? Have you an almshouse? What number of acres of land 
is attached to your almshouse? What is the estimated present 
value of your almshouse establishment? Real estate? Personal? 
What number of persons have been supported in your almshouse 
during the whole or anj T part of the }-ear? .What is the average 
number supported in the almshouse? What is the average weekl} T 
cost of supporting each pauper in the almshouse? What number 
of persons have been inmates of your almshouse who are unable to 
perform an} T kind or amount of labor? What is the estimated 
value of all the labor performed by the poor in your almshouse ? 
How many persons, including their families, have you supported 
out of the almshouse during the whole or a portion of the } T ear? 
What is the average weekly cost of supporting each pauper out of 



OVERSEERS OF THE POOR. 261 

the almshouse ? How many have you aided out of the almshouse ? 
How many have you supported or relieved who were insane ? How 
many who were idiots? What number of persons, relieved or sup- 
ported during the year in your town, have become dependent by 
reason of insanity or idiocy? What number of 3-our poor, sup- 
ported at the public charge, have been made dependent by their 
own intemperance ? What number by the intemperance of those 
who ought to have been their supporters? What is the total net 
amount of expense of supporting or relieving the poor in your town 
during the year, including interest on your almshouse establish- 
ment? How many are supported in your almshouse at the pres- 
ent time ? How many are supported out of the almshouse at the 
present time? How many are assisted out of the almshouse at 
the present time ? 

They shall, at the same time, make correct returns of all 
children in such city or town under fourteen years of age who 
are supported at the public charge, specifying therein the name, 
age, and sex of each. 

§ 716. If the overseers of a town or city refuse or neglect 
to comply with the requirements of the three preceding sec- 
tions, such town or city shall forfeit one dollar for each day's 
neglect, and the amount of such forfeiture shall be deducted 
from any sum to which said town or city may be entitled in 
reimbursement for relief of state paupers, and in case no such 
reimbursements shall be due to said town or city, the forfeit- 
ure shall be deducted from any money which may be due to 
it from the state. 

§ 717. Overseers of the poor shall make and forward 
returns on or before the tenth days of January and July in 
each year, to the state board, concerning all minor children 
above the age of four years who are supported at the expense 
of such city or town, in an almshouse or elsewhere, on the 
first day of said months. Said returns shall be made in such 
form and shall contain such information respecting said minor 
children as may be prescribed by the state board. Pub. Stats. 
ch. 84, §§ 36-38. 

§ 718. When a woman who has been delivered of a bastard 
child, or is pregnant with a child which if born alive may be 
a bastard, refuses or neglects to make a complaint and insti- 



262 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

tute a prosecution against the person whom she accuses of 
being the father of the child, when requested so to do by an 
overseer of the poor of the place where she resides or has 
her settlement, such overseer may make the complaint ; and 
when already made, if she refuses or neglects to prosecute 
the same, such overseer may prosecute the case to final judg- 
ment for the benefit of the town. In such case no complaint 
shall be withdrawn, dismissed, or settled by agreement of the 
mother and the putative father without the consent of the 
overseers of the poor of the town in which she has her settle- 
ment or residence, unless provision is made to the satisfaction 
of the court to relieve and indemnify such town from all 
charges that have accrued or may accrue for the maintenance 
of the child, and for the costs of complaint and prosecution 
thereof. Pub. Stats, ch. 85, §§ 2, 17. 

If a child who has been legally adopted becomes pregnant 
before a new settlement is acquired, an overseer of the poor 
of the town in which the adoptive father has his settlement 
may maintain a complaint under the above section. Washburn 
v. White, 140 Mass. 568. 

§ 719. No minor child supported at the expense of a town 
shall be removed therefrom without the consent of the over- 
seers of the poor thereof. Pub. Stats, ch. 89, § 54. 

§ 720. The overseers of the poor of a city or town, the 
trustees and superintendent of the state almshouse and the 
state workhouse, and the commissioners of public institutions 
in the city of Boston, may to any physician or surgeon, upon 
his request, give permission to take the bodies of such persons 
dying in such town, city, almshouse, workhouse, or public 
institution of the city of Boston, as are required to be buried 
at the public expense, to be by him used within the state 
for the advancement of anatomical science*; preference being 
given to medical schools established by law, for their use in 
the instruction of students. 

§ 721. If the deceased person, during his last sickness, of 
his own accord requested to be buried, or if, within three days 
after his death, any person claiming to be and satisfying the 
proper authorities that he is a friend or of kindred to the 
deceased asks to have the body buried, or if such deceased 



OVEESEERS OF THE POOR. 263 

person was a stranger or traveller who suddenly died, the 
body shall not be so surrendered, but shall be buried. Sts. 
1891, ch. 185, §§ 1, 2. 

(b) State Paupers. 

§ 722. The superintendent of the state almshouse at Tewks- 
bury, shall receive all paupers sent with a proper certificate 
from one of the overseers of the poor of any city or town or 
from one of the commissioners of public institutions in the 
city of Boston, or from some one duly authorized by vote of 
the board of overseers of the poor of any city or town or of 
the board of commissioners of public institutions in Boston, 
and provide for them under the rules and regulations herein 
provided. Sts. 1891, ch. 84. 

§ 723. The several cities and towns may, at their own 
expense, send to the almshouse, to be maintained at the public 
charge, all paupers who may fall into distress therein, not 
having a settlement within the Commonwealth ; but when 
the distance between such city or town and the almshouse, by 
the usual route, exceeds thirty miles, the city or town shall be 
reimbursed by the Commonwealth, upon bills approved by the 
state board, for the expense of transportation in excess of 
thirty miles, at a rate not exceeding three cents a mile by the 
usual route, for each state pauper thus sent. 

§ 724. The state board of trustees of the state almshouse 
at Tewksbury, upon the application of the overseers of the 
poor of any town, shall make provision, in the almshouse or 
elsewhere, for the support of Indians who may be unable to 
support themselves, and who have not acquired a settlement 
in any town. Pub. Stats, ch. 86, §§ 22, 23. 

§ 725. No city or town officer or agent having the care 
and oversight of a sick pauper shall remove or cause to be 
removed or attempt to remove, either by himself or by an 
agent, such pauper to the state almshouse unless there shall 
be reasonable cause to believe that such removal will not injure 
or endanger the health of such pauper. 

§ 726. No city or town officer or agent having the care 
and oversight of a sick pauper shall remove or cause to be 
removed or attempt to remove such pauper to the state alms- 



264 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

house, unless so ordered by the state board of lunacy and 
charity, until he shall have first procured a certificate of some 
competent physician setting forth that he has at the request of 
such officer examined such pauper, and that in his opinion 
such pauper can be removed to the state almshouse without 
injury or danger to his health. Sts. 1887, ch. 440, §§ 1, 2. 

§ 727. No city or town officer shall be allowed to send to 
the almshouse any person infected with small-pox or other 
disease dangerous to the public health, or any other sick 
person whose health would be endangered by removal ; but all 
such persons liable to be maintained by the Commonwealth 
shall be supported during their sickness by the city or town in 
which they are taken sick, and notice of such sickness shall 
be given to the state board, which may examine the case and 
order the removal of the patient if it deems it expedient: 
provided, that the notice herein required, in cases of sick 
persons whose health would be endangered by removal shall 
be signed by the overseers of the poor, or by such officer as 
they may see fit by special vote to appoint, and they or he 
shall certify, after a personal examination, that in their or his 
opinion such removal of the person named in such notice, at 
the time of his application for aid, would endanger his health. 
Sts. 1885, ch. 211. 

§ 728. When the operation of any provisions of law in 
relation to poor and indigent persons might cause a separation 
of husband and wife by reason of her having a legal settle- 
ment in some place in the Commonwealth, he being a state 
pauper, both parties shall be supported by the place where she 
has a legal settlement. Pub. Stats, ch. 86, § 30. 

§ 729. When, by reason of the almshouse being full, a city 
or town is unable to obtain admission for a state pauper, such 
place shall take charge of the pauper until notified by the 
superintendent that the pauper can be received. The superin- 
tendent shall give notice by mail when the pauper can be 
received, having regard in so doing to the priority of applica- 
tions ; and until notice is given, the city or town shall receive 
payment for the support of the pauper from the treasury of 
the Commonwealth. 

§ 730. If a pauper having a legal settlement in any place 



OVERSEERS OF THE POOR. 265 

becomes an inmate of the almshouse, such place shall be liable 
to the Commonwealth for the expense incurred for him, in 
like manner as one town is liable to another in like cases ; 
and the trustees and the state board shall adopt the same 
measures in regard to notifying towns so liable, the removal 
of the pauper, and the recovery from towns of expenses 
incurred for him, as are prescribed for towns in like cases. 
Pub. Stats, ch. 86, §§ 32, 35. 

§ 731. Upon complaint of the trustees of a state lunatic 
hospital, the county commissioners of a county, the trustees 
of a state pauper establishment, or the overseers of the poor 
of a place, a judge of the probate court shall have the power 
to cause the removal of state lunatic paupers under their 
charge to any other state, or beyond sea, where they belong. 
Pub. Stats, ch. 86, § 39. 

§ 732. Nothing shall be allowed from the treasury of the 
Commonwealth to any county, city, or town, for expenses 
incurred on account of any state pauper, except in cases 
expressly provided by law. 

§ 733. All accounts against the Commonwealth for allow- 
ance to counties, cities, and towns, on account of state paupers, 
shall be rendered to the state board on or before the third 
Wednesday of January annually ; and shall be so made as to 
include all claims for such charges up to the first day of said 
January, and, if approved by the board and certified by the 
auditor of accounts, shall be paid from the treasury of the 
Commonwealth. The state board may require such accounts 
to be accompanied with such statement of particulars and 
facts, and substantiated by such affidavits, as may seem to it 
proper. Pub. Stats, ch. 86, §§ 42, 43. 

(c) Lunatics. 

§ 734. The price for the support, in state lunatic hospitals, 
of state, city, and town paupers, shall be three dollars and 
twenty-five cents a week for each person. Pub. Stats, ch. 
87, § 31. 

§ 735. The charges for the support of lunatics having 
known settlements in this state shall be paid quarterly, either 
by the persons bound to pay, or by the place in which such 



266 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

lunatics had their residence at the time of their commitment, 
unless other sufficient security is taken, to the satisfaction of 
the trustees, for such support. Pub. Stats, ch. 87, § 33. 

The town or city in which a female convict transferred to 
a state lunatic hospital from the reformatory prison for 
women has her settlement is liable for her support under this 
section. Beard v. Boston, 151 Mass. 96. 

§ 736. Every city or town paying expenses for the support 
or removal of a lunatic committed to either hospital shall 
have like rights and remedies to recover the full amount 
thereof, with interest and costs, of the place of his settlement, 
as if such expenses had been incurred in the ordinary support 
of the lunatic ; and the lunatic, if of sufficient ability to pay 
the same, and any kindred bound by law to maintain him, 
shall be liable for all such expenses paid by a city or town in 
either case. Pub. Stats, ch. 87, § 34. 

A town, in order to recover the expenses paid by it for the 
support of a pauper committed to a state lunatic hospital from 
the town of the pauper's settlement, must first give the town 
notice thereof ; and the amount recoverable in such case is 
limited to the expenses incurred by the town within three 
months next before such notice is given. Taunton v. Ware- 
ham, 153 Mass. 192. 

§ 737. No city or town shall send to the almshouse any 
person who by reason of insanity would be dangerous if at 
large. Pub. Stats, ch. 86, § 24. 

(d) Masters, Apprentices, and Servants. 

§ 738. A minor child who is, or either of whose parents 
is, chargeable to a town as having a lawful settlement therein, 
or supported there at the expense of the state, may, whether 
under or above the age of fourteen years, be so bound by the 
overseers of the poor, a female to the age of eighteen years or 
to the time of her marriage within that age, and a male to the 
age of twenty-one years ; and provision shall be made in the 
contract for teaching them to read, write, and cipher, and for 
such other instruction, benefit, and allowance, either within 
or at the end of the term, as the overseers may deem 
reasonable. Pub. Stats, ch. 149, § 4. 



OVERSEERS OF THE POOR. 



267 



In this case the overseers are public officers, and not agents 
of the town, so that their admissions or acts cannot be 
regarded as the acts of the town. New Bedford v. Taunton, 
9 Allen, 207. 

They cannot be bound for a less time, and if the provision 
for teaching is omitted the contract is void. It is better to 
insert the provision literally. Butler v. Hubbard, 5 Pick. 250 ; 
Beidell v. Congdon, 16 Pick. 44. 

§ 739. No minor shall be so bound unless by an indenture 
of two parts sealed and delivered by both parties; and when 
made with the approbation of the selectmen, they shall certify 
such approbation in writing upon each part of the indenture. 

§ 740. One part of the indenture shall be kept by the 
parent or guardian executing it, for the use of the minor ; 
and when made with the approbation of the selectmen, or by the 
overseers of the poor, shall be deposited with the town clerk, 
and safely kept in his office for the use of the minor. When 
minors are bound by state, town, or municipal authorities, or 
authorized agents, the bond required to be given to the master 
may be waived by the parties. The bond given by the master 
shall be kept for the use of the minor, by the parent or guar- 
dian, and when there is no parent or guardian, it shall be 
deposited with the town clerk where the master resides, and 
safely kept in his office for the use of the minor. Pub. Stats. 
ch. 149, §§ 5, 6, 8, 9. 

§ 741. Parents, guardians, selectmen, and overseers shall 
inquire into the treatment of all children bound by them re- 
spectively, or with their approbation, and of all bound by or 
with the approbation of the predecessors in office of any of 
them, and defend them from all cruelty, neglect, and breach 
of contract on the part of masters. 

§ 742. Complaints by parents, guardians, selectmen, or 
overseers, for misconduct or neglect of the master, and by the 
master, for gross misbehavior, or refusal to do his duty, or 
wilful neglect thereof, on the part of the apprentice or servant, 
may be filed in the superior court in the county where the 
master resides, setting forth the facts and circumstances of 
the case. Pub. Stats, ch. 149, §§ 10, 11. 



268 THE TOWN OFFICER. 



THE SETTLEMENT OF PAUPERS. 

§ 743. Legal settlements may be acquired in any city or 
town, so as to oblige such place to relieve and support the 
persons acquiring the same, in case they are poor and stand 
in need of relief, in the manner following, and not otherwise, 
namely : — 

First, A married woman shall follow and have the settle- 
ment of her husband, if he has any within the state ; other- 
wise, her own at the time of marriage, if she then had any, 
shall not be lost or suspended by the marriage. Pub. Stats. 
ch. 83, § 1, cl. 1. 

A woman acquiring a settlement by her marriage under 
this section, does not lose her settlement by a divorce except 
for a cause which would show the marriage to have been void. 
Therefore a New York decree annulling the marriage for a 
cause not valid in Massachusetts, does not affect the settle- 
ment of the woman. Cummington v. Belchertown, 149 Mass. 
223, at p. 224. 

Second, Legitimate children shall follow and have the 
settlement of their father, if he has any within the state, until 
they gain a settlement of their own ; but if he has none, they 
shall in like manner follow and have the settlement of their 
mother, if she has any. Pub. Stats, ch. 83, § 1, cl. 2. 

But a minor child, having the settlement of its deceased 
father, does not lose it, and acquire the settlement of its 
mother, on her gaining a new settlement by a second mar- 
riage. Walpole v. Marblehead, 8 Cush. 528. 

Third, Illegitimate children shall follow and have the settle- 
ment of their mother at the time of their birth, if she then has 
any within the state ; but neither legitimate nor illegitimate 
children shall gain a settlement by birth in the place where 
they are born, if neither of their parents then has a settlement 
therein. Pub. Stats, ch. 83, § 1, cl. 3. 

If the parents of illegitimate children intermarry, and the 
father acknowledges them as his, the children are made legiti- 
mate, and thereupon take the settlement of the father. Monson 
v. Palmer, 8 Allen, 551 ; Pub. Stats, ch. 125, § 5. 



OVERSEERS OF THE POOR. 



269 



Fourth, Any person of the age of twenty-one years, having an 
estate of inheritance or freehold in any place within the state, 
and living on the same three years successively, shall thereby 
gain a settlement in such place. Pub. Stats, ch. 83, § 1, cl. 4. 

But such person does not acquire a settlement in a town, if 
he receives support as a pauper, during those three years, 
from the town in which he had his settlement. 

And such support granted to such person, as a pauper, by 
the overseers of the poor of the town in which he has a settle- 
ment, will prevent his acquiring a settlement in another town 
in which he resides, although the act of the overseers, in 
granting such support, be not ratified by the town of whose 
poor they are overseers. Oakham v. Sutton, 13 Met. 192. 

And one living three years in any town within this state, on 
land conveyed to him by a warranty deed, gains a settlement 
in such town, although his grantor had in fact no title to the 
land. Boylston v. Clinton, 1 Gray, 619. 

A person does not obtain a settlement in a town where he 
owns a freehold, if before he has lived thereon for three years 
successively he is committed to the state lunatic hospital, 
and there supported as a pauper; although his family con- 
tinue to reside on his land for the residue of the three years. 
Choate v. Rochester, 13 Gray, 92. 

This clause does not apply to a married woman. Spencer 
v. Leicester, 140 Mass. 224. 

Fifth, Any person of the age of twenty-one years, who 
resides in any. place within this state for five years together, and 
pays all state, county, city, or town taxes, duly assessed on his 
poll or estate, for any three years within that time, shall thereby 
gain a settlement in such place. Pub. Stats, ch. 83, § 1, cl. 5. 

A person does not acquire a settlement in a town by resid- 
ing therein ten years together, and paying taxes for five of 
those years, if he receives aid as a pauper, from such town, 
before the expiration of the ten years ; West Newbury v. 
Bradford, 3 Met. 428 ; nor if a town has paid for his support 
while confined in its workhouse, on conviction of a criminal 
offence ; Worcester v. Auburn, 4 Allen, 574 ; nor if, during 
his residence, the assessors omit to tax him, although pos- 
sessed of real and personal estate ; such omission being not 



270 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

on account of his infirmity or poverty, or by mistake, but in 
order to prevent his acquiring a settlement. Berlin v. Bolton, 
10 Met. 115. 

Insanity occurring after the person has become an inhabi- 
tant of a town will not prevent his acquiring a settlement by 
the requisite residence therein. Ohicopee v. Whately, 6 Allen, 
508. 

The assessment of a tax on real estate to the occupant, and 
the payment of the same by him, not as of his own estate, but 
in right of another, are a sufficient assessment and payment 
of a tax within the provisions of this clause, for acquiring a 
settlement as a pauper in the town where such party resides. 
Randolph v. Easton, 4 Cush. 557. 

A domicil once acquired is presumed to continue until a 
subsequent change is shown ; this is a rule applicable to cases 
of settlement. Ohicopee v. Whately, 6 Allen, 508. 

Absence from a town, without a definite purpose at all 
events to return to it as a home, will not interrupt the resi- 
dence requisite to a settlement under this clause, until a new 
domicil is acquired elsewhere. Worcester v. Wilbraham, 13 
Gray, 586 ; Lee v. Lenox, 15 Gray, 496. 

An adult person in order to gain a settlement in a town or 
city under this section by a five-years residence and the pay- 
ment of all taxes assessed to him " for any three years within 
that time," must have resided in the town or city during the 
whole of the three years for which the taxes were assessed. 
Taunton v. Wareham, 153 Mass. 192. 

Sixth, Any woman of the age of twenty-one years, who 
resides in any place within this state for five years together, 
shall thereby gain a settlement in such place. Pub. Stats, ch. 
83, § 1, cl. 6. 

Seventh, The provisions of the preceding clause shall apply 
to married women who have not a settlement derived by mar- 
riage under the provisions of the first clause, and to widows ; 
and a settlement thereunder shall be deemed to have been 
gained by an unsettled woman upon the completion of the 
term of residence therein mentioned, although the whole or 
a part of such term has already elapsed. Pub. Stats, ch. 83, 
§ 1, cl. 7. 



OVERSEERS OP THE POOR. 271 

A married woman whose husband is living is under no 
legal obligation to support their children, even if the husband 
is imprisoned for crime ; and her right to acquire a settlement, 
under clauses 6 and 7, by a residence of five years, is not taken 
away under clause 2, by her receiving money during the five 
years, to be used for the board of her pauper child. Grleason 
v. Boston, 144 Mass. 25. 

Widows who have a settlement derived from their former 
husbands are included within the provisions of clauses 6 and 
7 of this section. Harden v. Boston, 155 Mass. 359. 

Eighth, Any person being chosen and actually serving one 
whole year in the office of clerk, treasurer, selectman, overseer 
of the poor, assessor, constable, or collector of taxes, in any 
place, shall thereby gain a settlement therein. For this pur- 
pose, a year shall be considered as including the time between 
the choice of such officers at one annual meeting and the 
choice at the next annual meeting, whether more or less than 
a calendar year. Pub. Stats, ch. 83, § 1, cl. 8. 

Ninth, Every settled ordained minister of the gospel shall 
be deemed to have acquired a legal settlement in the place 
wherein he is or may be settled as a minister. Pub. Stats. 
ch. 83, § 1, cl. 9. 

Where a minister who has been regularly ordained in one 
town is afterwards settled in another, as a pastor, with the 
full character, rights, and duties of a pastor, but without any 
new ordination or ceremony of induction, or for a limited 
time, as for a year, he will by such settlement as a minister 
acquire a settlement as a pauper in the latter town. Belling- 
ham v. West Boylston, 4 Cush. 553. 

Tenth, A minor who serves an apprenticeship to a lawful 
trade for the space of four years in any place, and actually 
sets up such trade therein within one year after the expiration 
of said term, being then twenty-one years old, and continues 
there to carry on the same for five years, shall thereby gain a 
settlement in such place ; but being hired as a journeyman 
shall not be considered as setting up a trade. Pub. Stats, ch. 
83, § 1, cl. 10. 

Eleventh, Any person who was duly enlisted and mustered 
into the military or naval service of the United States, as a 



272 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

part of the quota of any city or town in this Commonwealth, 
under any call of the President of the United States during 
the late civil war, or duly assigned as a part of the quota 
thereof, after having been enlisted and mustered into said 
service, and who duly served, for not less than one year, or 
died, or became disabled from wounds or disease received or 
contracted while engaged in such service, or while a prisoner 
in the hands of the enemy, and his wife or widow and minor 
children, shall be deemed thereby to have acquired a settle- 
ment in such place ; and any person who would otherwise be 
entitled to a settlement under this clause, but who was not a 
part of the quota of any city or town, shall, if he served as a 
part of the quota of the Commonwealth, be deemed to have 
acquired a settlement in the place where he actually resided at 
the time of his enlistment. But these provisions shall not 
apply to any person who was enlisted and received a bounty 
for such enlistment in more than one place, unless the second 
enlistment was made after an honorable discharge from the 
first term of service, nor to any person who has been proved 
guilty of wilful desertion, or who left the service otherwise 
than by reason of disability or an honorable discharge. Pub. 
Stats, ch. 83, § 1, cl. 11. 

The words " duly assigned " must be taken to mean assigned 
in such form that the town had the benefit of the assignment. 
Brockton v. Uxbridge, 138 Mass. 292 ; Sheffield v. Otis, 107 
Mass. 282, 285; Bridgewater v. Plymouth, 97 Mass. 382; 
Boston v. Mount Washington, 139 Mass. 15. 

A soldier, who was a minor at the time he enlisted into the 
military service of the United States during the late civil war 
as a part of the quota of a city or town, acquired together 
with his wife or widow and minor children, the same settle- 
ment therein as if he had been of full age at the time of his 
enlistment. Fall River v. Taunton, 150 Mass. 106. 

A settlement may be acquired by reason of service in the 
navy of the United States as part of the quota of a town in 
this Commonwealth, although the person performing such 
service was, at the time of his enlistment, a resident of another 
town, notwithstanding the provision of the United States 
Statute of July 4, 1864, § 8, that naval recruits are to be 



OVERSEERS OF THE POOR. 273 

credited to the quota of the town " in which they respectively 
reside." Brockton v. Uxbridge, 138 Mass. 292. 

Twelfth, Upon the division of a city or town, every person 
having a legal settlement therein, but being absent at the time 
of such division, and not having acquired a legal settlement 
elsewhere, shall have his legal settlement in that place wherein 
his last dwelling-place or home happens to fall upon such divi- 
sion ; and when a new city or town is incorporated, composed 
of a part of one or more incorporated places, every person 
legally settled in the places of which such new city or town is 
so composed, and who actually dwells and has his home within 
the bounds of such new city or town at the time of its incor- 
poration, and any person duly qualified as provided in the 
eleventh clause of this section, who, at the time of his enlist- 
ment, dwelt and had his home within such bounds, shall 
thereby acquire a legal settlement in such new place ; but no 
person residing in that part of a place which upon such divi- 
sion is incorporated into a new city or town, and having then 
no legal settlement therein, shall acquire any by force of such 
incorporation only ; nor shall such incorporation prevent his 
acquiring a settlement therein within the time and by the 
means by which he would have gained it there if no such 
division had been made. Pub. Stats, ch. 83, § 1, cl. 12. 

Votes of a town as follows : " to hire out F and take his 
wages for support of his family," and " to vendue the poor" 
followed by the record of the bidding off of Fs children ; and 
to pay various bills for the support of him and them ; also 
votes at a town meeting " to see what the town will do with 
the town poor," that " the children of F be sold to the lowest 
bidder," etc., contain admissions that F had a settlement in 
the town, and warranted a finding of such settlement. Bridge- 
water v. Wareham, 138 Mass. 305. 

§ 744. Nothing in the preceding section shall be construed 
to give to any person the right to acquire a settlement, or to 
be in process of acquiring a settlement, while receiving relief 
as a pauper, unless within five years from the time of receiving 
such relief he reimburses the cost thereof to the city or town 
furnishing the same. 

§ 745. No person who actually supports himself and his 

18 



274 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

family shall be deemed to be a pauper by reason of the com- 
mitment of his wife, child, or other relative, to a lunatic 
hospital or other institution of charity, reform, or correction, 
by order of a court or magistrate, and of his inability to main- 
tain such wife, child, or relative therein ; but nothing herein 
contained shall be construed to release him from liability for 
such maintenance. 

§ 746. No person who has begun to acquire a settlement 
by the laws in force at and before the time when this chapter 
takes effect, in any of the ways in which any time is prescribed 
for a residence, or for the continuance or succession of any 
other act, shall be prevented or delayed by the provisions 
hereof ; but he shall acquire a settlement by a continuance or 
succession of the same residence or other act, in the same 
time and manner as if the former laws had continued in force. 

§ 747. Except as hereinafter provided, every legal settle- 
ment shall continue till it is lost or defeated by acquiring a 
new one within this state ; and upon acquiring such new 
settlement, all former settlements shall be defeated and lost. 
Pub. Stats, ch. 83, §§ 2-5. 

§ 748. When a convict at the expiration of his sentence 
is in such condition from bodily infirmity or disease as to 
render his removal impracticable, he shall be suitably cared 
for in the prison, or other place where he has been confined, 
until he is in a condition to be removed. The expense of his 
support, not exceeding three dollars and fifty cents a week, 
shall be paid by the place where he has a legal settlement, 
after notice to the overseers of such place, or to the state 
board of health, lunacy, and charity, if he is a state pauper, 
of the expiration of his sentence, and of his condition. Pub. 
Stats, ch. 222, § 25. 

§ 749. When at the expiration of the sentence of any 
person who is confined in, or is an inmate of, any state penal 
or charitable institution, a common jail, house of correction 
or municipal or town almshouse, such person shall then have 
the disease known as syphilis in its contagious or infectious 
symptoms, or in the opinion of the attending physician of 
such institution, or of such physician as the authorities thereof 
may consult, would cause the discharge of such person to be 



OVERSEERS OF THE POOR. 275 

dangerous to public health and safety, such person shall be 
placed under proper medical treatment and kept and suitably 
cared for, in the institution where he has been confined, until 
such time as in the opinion of the attending physician such 
contagious and infectious symptoms shall have disappeared, 
and the discharge of the patient shall not endanger the public 
health. The expense of his support, not exceeding three 
dollars and fifty cents a week, shall be paid by the city or 
town where he has a legal settlement, after notice to the 
overseers of the poor of such city or town, or, if he is a state 
pauper, after notice to the state board of lunacy and charity, 
of the expiration of his sentence, and of his condition. Sts. 
1891, ch. 420, § 2. 

FORMS. 

Notice to another Town that Pauper zohose /Settlement is in 
such Town is Expense chargeable to that Toion, etc. 

B , 189 . 

To the Overseers of the Poor of the town of T , 

Gentlemen, — A. B., whose legal settlement is in your town, 
but now residing in this town, being in needy circumstances, has 
applied to this board for relief, which we have granted, and charged 
to 3'our town, and shall continue so to do until you remove or other- 
wise provide for his support. 

For and in behalf of the overseers of the poor of the town of 

B . 

With respect, gentlemen, your obedient servant, 

One of said Overseers. 

Meply to foregoing, 

T , 189 . 

To the Overseers of the Poor of the of B . 

Gentlemen, — Your notice dated informing us that on 

expense as a pauper in your and alleging that the legal settle- 

ment is in this town, is received. 

Upon due inquiry we can find no evidence that this town is the 
place of lawful settlement of said pauper, We therefore decline 

removing said pauper or paying any expense that has arisen, 

or may arise, for support. 

By order and in behalf of the overseers of the poor of the town 

ofT . 

Your obedient servant, 

One of said Overseers, 



276 THE TOWN OFFICER. 



WORKHOUSES AND ALMSHOUSES. 

§ 750. A city or town may erect or provide a workhouse or 
almshouse for the employment and support of poor and indi- 
gent persons who are maintained by or receive alms from the 
city or town ; of persons who, being able of body to work and 
not having estate or means otherwise to maintain themselves, 
refuse or neglect to work ; of persons who live a dissolute, 
vagrant life, and exercise no ordinary calling or lawful busi- 
ness ; of persons who spend their time and property in public 
houses to the neglect of their proper business, or who, by 
otherwise misspending their earnings to the impoverishment 
of themselves and their families, are likely to become charge- 
able to the city or town ; and of other persons sent thereto 
under any provisions of law. 

§ 751. No city or town shall erect or maintain an alms- 
house or house of correction within the limits of any other 
place, without the consent of such other place. 

§ 752. Every city or town having a workhouse or alms- 
house may annually choose three, five, seven, or more directors, 
who shall have the inspection and government thereof, and 
who may appoint a master and necessary assistants for the 
more immediate care and superintendence of the persons 
received or employed therein. Where such directors are not 
specially chosen, the overseers of the poor shall be the 
directors. 

§ 753. Once in every month, and at other times as occasion 
may require, the directors shall hold meetings for the purpose 
of determining the best mode of discharging their duties. At 
such monthly meetings they may make needful orders and 
regulations for the house, which shall be binding until the 
next meeting of the town or of the city council, when the 
same shall be submitted to such meeting ; and if approved 
shall remain in force until revoked by the town or the city 
council. 

§ 754. Any number of cities or towns may at their joint 
charge and for their common use erect or provide a workhouse 
or almshouse, and purchase land for the use thereof. 



OVERSEERS OF THE POOR. 277 

§ 755. The ordering, governing, and repairing of such 
house, the appointment of a master and necessary assistants, 
and the power of removing them for misconduct, incapacity, 
or other sufficient cause, shall be vested in a joint board of 
directors, who shall be chosen annually by the several places 
interested. 

§ 756. Unless all the places interested in such house agree 
to choose a different number, each of them shall choose three 
members of the board ; and in case of the death of a director, 
or of his removal from the place for which he was chosen, the 
vacancy may be supplied by such place. If a place neglects to 
choose directors, those chosen by the other places shall have 
the whole charge of the house. 

§ 757. Stated quarterly meetings of the board shall be 
holden on the first Tuesdays of January, April, July, and 
October, at the workhouse or almshouse under their charge, 
for the purpose of inspecting the management and directing 
the business thereof. Meetings of the board may be called at 
other times by the directors chosen by any place interested, 
they giving notice of the time and purpose thereof to the other 
members of the board in such manner as has been agreed upon 
at a stated meeting. 

§ 758. The board of directors may choose a moderator, and 
at their first general meeting they shall appoint a clerk, who 
shall be sworn and shall record all votes and orders of the 
board. 

§ 759. At. a general quarterly meeting, if one half of the 
members are present, they may make reasonable orders and 
by-laws, not repugnant to the laws of the Commonwealth, for 
ordering and regulating the house under their charge, and 
may agree with the master and assistants, and order a suitable 
compensation for their services. 

§ 760. Other matters may be acted upon at any other 
meeting duly notified, if one third of the members are present ; 
but the doings of such meetings may be altered or revised at 
any general stated meeting. 

§ 761. The yearly compensation of the master and assist- 
ants (in addition to the allowance hereafter provided in these 
sections for their services), and also the expense of keeping 



278 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

the house in repair, shall be paid by the several places inter- 
ested, in proportion to their state tax at the time when the 
expense was incurred, or in such proportion as the places 
interested shall agree. Pub. Stats, ch. 33, §§ 1-12. 

§ 762. No greater number of persons belonging to a city 
or town shall be received into such workhouse or almshouse 
than such city's or town's proportion of such house, when the 
receiving of them would exclude or be inconvenient to such 
as belong to the other places interested. Pub. Stats, ch. 
33, § 14. 

§ 763. Each place may furnish, for the employment of any 
person committed to such house, such additional materials? 
implements, and means of work as the overseers of the poor 
thereof may choose ; and the master of the house shall receive 
the same, and keep them separate from those of the other 
places, and shall be accountable to each place interested as 
well for the cost as for all profits and earnings made by the 
labor of the persons committed ,to said house from such place. 

§ 764. Each master shall keep a register of the names of 
the persons committed or received, the places to which they 
belong, the dates of their reception and discharge, and of their 
respective earnings, to be submitted to the overseers of the 
poor upon their request. 

§ 765. Controversies between a master and the overseers 
of the poor of any place respecting the accounts or other 
official doings of the master shall be determined by the 
directors of the house at their general or quarterly meeting. 

§ 766. The profits and earnings arising from the work of 
persons committed to a workhouse or almshouse shall, with 
the stock remaining on hand, be disposed of as the overseers 
of the poor of the several places shall think proper, either to 
the use of their cities or towns, of the persons committed, or 
of the families of such persons. 

§ 767. No person committed to a workhouse shall be dis- 
charged within the time for which he was committed, except 
under the provisions of section sixty-eight of chapter two hun- 
dred and twenty, of the Public Statutes or by the court or 
justice who made the commitment, by the directors of the 
house at their general or quarterly meeting, or by the superior 



OVERSEERS OF THE POOR. 279 

court at a term held in the county where such house is 
situated, and for good cause shown upon application for that 
purpose. 

§ 768. Every person committed to a workhouse shall, if 
able to work, be kept diligently employed in labor during the 
term of his commitment. If he is idle and does not perform 
such reasonable task as is assigned, or if he is stubborn and 
disorderly, he shall be punished according to the orders and 
regulations established by the directors. 

§ 769. When a person not having a legal settlement in 
this Commonwealth becomes idle or indigent, he may be com- 
mitted to the workhouse, to be there employed, if able to 
labor, in the same manner and under the same rules as other 
persons there committed. 

§ 770. A workhouse or almshouse may be discontinued, or 
appropriated to any other use, when the place or places 
interested so determine. 

§ 771. Nothing contained in these sections shall affect any 
powers or privileges heretofore granted to cities or towns, or 
to the overseers of the poor thereof, by acts specially relating 
to workhouses or almshouses therein. Pub. Stats, ch. 33, 
§§ 16-24. 



280 THE TOWN OFFICER. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

SURVEYORS OF HIGHWAYS. 

HIGHWAYS AND TOWN WAYS. 

(a) Surveyors and Repairs. 

§ 772. Highways, town ways, streets, causeways, and 
bridges shall be kept in repair at the expense of the town, 
city, or place in which they are situated, when other provision 
is not made therefor, so that the same may be reasonably safe 
and convenient for travellers, with their horses, teams, and 
carriages, at all seasons of the year. Pub. Stats, ch. 52, § 1. 

Towns may bestow labor upon all parts of the located way, 
and may make such changes in the natural surface of the soil 
as will add to the convenience or safety of the traveller. 
Flagg v. Worcester, 13 Gray, 601. 

It is the settled rule of law in this Commonwealth that, in 
all cases where a highway, turnpike, bridge, town way, or 
other way is laid across a natural stream of water, it is the 
duty of those who use such privilege to make provision by 
open bridges, culverts, or other means for the free current of 
the water, so that it shall not be obstructed and pent up to 
flow back on lands belonging to the riparian proprietors. 
And it is their duty not only to make such bridge, culvert, or 
passage for water, but to keep it in such condition that it 
shall not obstruct the stream. Parker v. Lowell, 11 Gray, 
353. 

§ 773. If a person chosen surveyor of highways, unless 
exempt by law from holding such office, refuses, after being 
duly summoned, to take the oath of office, he shall forfeit a 
sum not exceeding ten dollars. Sts. 1893, ch. 423, § 39. 

Selectmen may also be surveyors of highways. Benjamin 
v. Wheeler, 15 Gray, 490 ; Bay State Brick Co. v. Foster, 115 
Mass. 431 ; Com. v. Wentworth, 145 Mass. 50. 



SURVEYORS OF HIGHWAYS. 281 

Selectmen, unless specially authorized, cannot make con- 
tracts for the repair of highways. Clark v. Russell, 116 
Mass. 455 ; Hawks v. Charlemont, 107 Mass. 414. 

§ 774. A surveyor of highways who neglects the duties of 
his office shall forfeit ten dollars for each neglect ; and he 
may be prosecuted by indictment for any deficiency in the 
highways within his limits occasioned by his fault or neglect. 

§ 775. If a town is sentenced to pay a fine for a deficiency 
in the highways or town ways therein, any surveyor through 
whose fault or neglect such deficiency existed shall be liable 
for the amount of such fine and all costs, to be recovered by 
the town in an action of tort. Sts. 1893, ch. 423, §§ 21, 
22. 

A surveyor is not liable otherwise to the town than as herein 
provided, and consequently is not liable for damages recovered 
of the town on account of defects in its highway owing to his 
neglect. White v. Phillipston, 10 Met. 108. 

To " repair " a way is to refit, make good, or restore an 
existing one, not to make a new one or widen the old one by 
including additional land. The surveyor has no lawful 
authority to use the money placed in his hands for ordinary 
repairs on existing roads, in making new structures and addi- 
tions thereto. Todd v. Rowley, 8 Allen, 58. 

A bridge would seem to include to some extent the ap- 
proaches to it as appendages to it. The particular extent 
must be determined by what is reasonable under the circum- 
stances of each. case. This matter becomes important when 
the bridge is to be kept in repair by a toll company, railroad 
company, or some party other than the town in which it is 
situated, which has the care of the roads approaching it also. 
Commonwealth v. Deerfield, 6 Allen, 455. 

§ 776. Towns shall grant and vote such sums of money as 
are necessary for making and repairing highways and town 
ways, and such money shall be carefully and judiciously 
expended in making and repairing said ways by the road 
commissioners, or by the surveyors of highways, each in his 
own district, when the town is divided into highway districts, 
and in such cases under the direction of the selectmen. Pub. 
Stats, ch. 52, § 3. 



282 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

Officers like surveyors of highways and road commission- 
ers, although they are elected and paid by the town, are public 
officers, and not agents or servants of the town, and the town 
is not responsible for their acts in the performance of their 
public duties. Clark v. LJaston, 146 Mass. 43 ; Pratt v. Wey- 
mouth, 147 Mass. 245, at p. 254. " The responsibility of doing 
the work, directing the laborers, and taking charge of the 
repairs, is that of the highway surveyor." Devens, J., in Pratt 
v. Weymouth, 147 Mass. 245, at p. 255 ; Prince v. Lynn, 149 
Mass. 193, at p. 195 ; Nealley v. Bradford, 145 Mass. 561, at 
p. 564. 

The town cannot be made liable for the cost of the repairs, 
but it may pay for them if it chooses to do so. And so far as 
they cause damages to the estates of individuals by repairs 
upon the highways, they are treated as done under competent 
authority. Allen v. Gardner, 147 Mass. 452. 

§ 777. The selectmen of every town having more than one 
surveyor of highways shall annually, before the first day of 
May, assign in writing to each surveyor the limits and divi- 
sions of the highways and town ways to be kept in repair by 
him. 

§ 778. When there is a deficiency in the amount appro- 
priated for the repair of highways or town* ways within the 
limits of any surveyor, or when said amount is not furnished 
or paid to him, so that he is unable to make such repairs, he 
may, to an amount not exceeding ten dollars, employ persons 
to make such repairs ; and the persons so employed shall be 
paid therefor by the town. Pub. Stats, ch. 52, §§ 4, 5. 

§ 779. If a town neglects to vote a sufficient sum of money 
for the purpose of repairing the highways and town ways, or 
does not otherwise effectually provide therefor, each of its 
surveyors, in their respective districts, or the road commis- 
sioners (first having obtained the consent of the selectmen 
for that purpose in writing), may employ persons to repair 
the highways and town ways so that the same shall be reason- 
ably safe and convenient for travellers at all seasons of the 
year, and the persons so employed shall be paid therefor by 
the town. Pub. Stats, ch. 52, § 6. 

Highway surveyors have no power to bind a town by con- 



SURVEYORS OF HIGHWAYS. 283 

tracts, not within the two preceding sections, for the ordinary 
repairs on highways, without authority from the town, con- 
ferred by express vote, or by a practice and custom adopted 
by it. Blanchard v. Ayer, 148 Mass. 174. 

Plaintiff, a surveyor of highways, expended money without 
direction of selectmen for repairs of the highways. The 
town had not neglected to vote a sufficient supply of money. 
Thus it did not come within the two preceding sections, and 
plaintiff could not recover. Groddard v. Petersham, 136 Mass. 
235. 

§ 780. Two thirds at least of the money granted by each 
town for repairing highways and town ways shall be laid out 
and expended for that purpose before the first day of July 
next after the same is granted, or at such other time or times 
as the town at a legal meeting called for that purpose shall 
determine. 

§ 781. Every surveyor shall annually on the first Monday 
of July, and also at the expiration of the term for which he 
is appointed, render to the selectmen an account of all moneys 
expended by him on the highways and town ways. For each 
neglect he shall forfeit a sum not exceeding fifty dollars. 

§ 782. If any money remains unexpended in the hands of 
a surveyor at the expiration of his office, he shall pay the same 
to the town treasurer, who, after demand, may recover the 
same in an action of contract for money had and received, 
with twenty per cent in addition thereto, to the use of the 
town. Pub. Stats, ch. 52, §§ 7-9. 

§ 783. The officer appointed to have the care of the trees 
belonging to a city or town and his assistants, but no other 
person, except as is provided in the following section, may, 
and when required by the surveyors of highways or road com- 
missioners shall, trim or lop off trees and bushes standing in 
highways, townways, streets, or lanes, and, when ordered by a 
vote of the mayor and aldermen, selectmen, or road commis- 
sioners, passed after public notice and hearing, shall cut down 
and remove such trees ; and the surveyors of highways and 
road commissioners shall forthwith cause to be dug up and 
removed whatever obstructs such ways, or endangers, hinders, 
or incommodes persons travelling thereon ; and shall forth- 



284 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

with cause snow to be removed from such ways or to be so 
trodden down as to make the ways reasonably safe and con- 
venient. Sts. 1885, ch. 123, § 2. 

If a highway surveyor, upon being notified that a shade 
tree standing in the highway is unsound and dangerous, does 
not proceed to obtain authority to cut down and remove it, as 
provided in this section, nor take due precaution against the 
danger, the town will be liable to a traveller who is injured by 
its fall. Chase v. Lowell, 151 Mass. 422. 

" Although the surveyors of highways may remove ' what- 
ever obstructs or encumbers a highway or town way, or hinders, 
incommodes or endangers persons travelling thereon ' (Pub. 
Stats, 52, § 10), they have no rights of property in the public 
ways, and cannot as surveyors, maintain suits against persons 
who obstruct the ways." Field, J., in JSfeedham v. N. Y. $ 
N. E. B. B., 152 Mass. 61. 

The decision of the surveyor acting within the scope of his 
authority, that a structure in a highway is an obstruction to 
public travel, is conclusive, and evidence is not admissible to 
show that it is not an obstruction in fact, or that the removal 
will seriously incommode and damage the person who placed 
it there, or that the surveyor did not act in good faith in decid- 
ing that it was an obstruction to public travel. Bay State 
Brick Co. v. Foster, 115 Mass. 431. 

§ 784. No surveyor, road commissioner, or other person 
shall remove or take down fences, gates, or bars placed on a 
highway or town way for the purpose of preventing the spread- 
ing of a disease which may be dangerous to the public health. 

§ 785. No surveyor of highways or road commissioner 
shall, without the approbation of the selectmen first had in 
writing, cause a water-course occasioned by the wash of a 
highway or town way to be so conveyed by the side of such 
way as to incommode a house, store, shop, or other building, 
or to obstruct a person in the prosecution of his business. 
Persons aggrieved by a violation of this section may complain 
to the selectmen or mayor and aldermen, who shall thereupon 
view the water-course and may direct the surveyor or road 
commissioners to alter the same in such manner as they shall 
determine. 



SURVEYORS OF HIGHWAYS. 285 

§ 786. Towns may authorize their surveyors or road com- 
missioners, or any other person, to enter into contracts for 
making or repairing the highways or town ways within the 
same. 

§ 787. The selectmen or road commissioners may enter 
upon, use, or take any land for the purpose of securing or 
protecting a public way or bridge whenever in their opinion it 
is necessary so to do ; and all damages sustained thereby shall 
be recovered in the manner provided for the assessment of 
damages occasioned by the laying out, alteration, or discon- 
tinuance of town ways. Pub. Stats, ch. 52, §§ 11-14. 

§ 788. When an owner of land adjoining a highway or 
town way sustains damage in his property by reason of any 
raising, lowering, or other act done for the purpose of repair- 
ing such way, he shall have compensation therefor, to be 
determined by the selectmen, road commissioners, or mayor 
and aldermen, with whom he shall file his petition therefor 
after the commencement and within one year from the comple- 
tion of the work, and who shall finally adjudicate upon the 
question of damages within thirty days after the filing of the 
petition therefor, unless the parties agree in writing to extend 
the time. The benefit, if any, which the complainant receives 
by reason of such alteration or repair, shall be allowed byway 
of set-off. Pub. Stats, ch. 52, § 15. 

" If a town by its agents, or if the highway surveyors of a 
town, in constructing or repairing highways, cause the surface 
water to flow upon the land of an adjoining proprietor, there 
is no remedy by action. The owner of the adjoining land can 
protect himself by such barriers as he may choose to build." 
Field, J., in Kennuon v. Beverly, 146 Mass. 467. 

§ 789. If a town neglects to repair any of the ways or 
bridges which it is by law obliged to keep in repair, or neglects 
to make the same reasonably safe and convenient when en- 
cumbered witli snow, such . town shall pay such fine as the 
court in its discretion may order. Pub. Stats, ch. 52, § 23. 

§ 790. Corporations organized for the purpose of making and 
selling gas for light, for supplying the inhabitants of a town 
with fresh water, or generating and furnishing steam or hot 
water for heating, cooking, and mechanical power, may, with 



286 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

the consent in writing of the mayor and aldermen of a city or 
the selectmen of a town, dig up and open the grounds in any 
of the streets, lanes, and highways thereof, so far as is neces- 
sary to accomplish the objects of the corporation ; but such 
consent shall not affect the right or remedy to recover dam- 
ages for an injury caused to persons or property by the doings 
of such corporations. They shall put all such streets, lanes, 
and highways, which are opened, into as good repair as they 
were in when opened ; and, upon failure so to do within a 
reasonable time, shall be deemed guilty of a nuisance. Pub. 
Stats, ch. 106, §§ 11, 75 ; ch. 110, § 10. 

(b) Boundaries of Highways. 

§ 791. Where buildings or fences have been erected and 
continued for more than twenty years, fronting upon or 
against a training-field, burying-place, common landing-place, 
highway, private way, street, lane, or alley, and from the 
length of time or otherwise the boundaries thereof are not 
known or cannot be made certain by the records or by monu- 
ments, such fences or buildings shall be deemed and taken to 
be the true boundaries thereof. When such boundaries can 
be made certain, no length of time, less than forty years, shall 
justify the continuance of a fence or building on a town way, 
private way, highway, training-field, burying-place, landing- 
place, or other land appropriated for the general use or con- 
venience of the inhabitants of the Commonwealth, or of a 
county, town, or parish ; but the same may, upon the present- 
ment of a grand jury, be removed as a nuisance. Pub. Stats. 
ch. 54, § 1. 

It is sufficient if the fence has been substantially in the 
same place. Thus where the fence is a Virginia fence, a 
straight line drawn through its centre is to be taken as the 
true boundary. Holbrook v. McBride, 4 Gray, 215. 

If the original boundary can be made certain by ancient 
monuments, although the same are not now in existence, it 
must be taken to be the true boundary ; but when it cannot 
be made certain, the fence is conclusive evidence, and not 
merely prima facie, of the true boundary. Wood v. Quincy, 
11 Cush. 487 ; Pettingill v. Porter, 3 Allen, 349. 



SURVEYORS OF HIGHWAYS. 287 

§ 792. If fences, gates, rails, or bars are upon or across a 
town way, or private way, they may be removed by the order 
of a justice of the peace, unless they are there placed for the 
purpose of preventing the spreading of a disease dangerous to 
the public health, or unless they are erected or continued by 
license of the town, or of the person for whose use such pri- 
vate way was laid out ; and a person aggrieved by such 
removal may apply to the county commissioners ; and if upon 
examination it appears that such fences, gates, rails, or bars 
were erected or continued by license as aforesaid, the com- 
missioners shall order them to be replaced. Pub. Stats. 
ch. 54, § 5. 

A bill in equity brought by a town and its surveyors of 
highways for the obstruction of a town way cannot be main- 
tained if it alleges no special damage to the inhabitants of the 
town distinct from that suffered by the public generally. 
Needham v. 1ST. Y. £ JV. E. E. R., 152 Mass. 61. 

§ 793. The mayor and aldermen, selectmen, road commis- 
sioners, or any municipal officer of a city or town to whom 
the care of the streets or roads may be intrusted, may author- 
ize the planting of shade trees therein, wherever it will not 
interfere with the public travel or with private rights ; and 
shade trees standing and trees planted pursuant to such li- 
cense shall be deemed and taken to be the private property of 
the person so planting them, or upon whose premises they 
stand or are planted, and shall not be deemed a nuisance ; 
but upon complaint made to the mayor and aldermen, select- 
men, or road commissioners, they may cause such trees to 
be removed at the expense of the owner thereof, if the 
public necessity seems to them so to require. Pub. Stats. 
ch. 54, § 6. 

" Standing," in this section, means standing June 1, 1860, the 
date when the statute took effect. White v. Godfrey, 97 
Mass. 475. 

(c) Guide-posts. 

§ 794. Every town shall erect and maintain guide-posts on 
the highways and other ways within the town, at such places 
as are necessary or convenient for the direction of travellers, 



288 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

and shall erect and maintain such guide-posts at such forks 
or intersections of such highways and other ways as lead to 
adjoining towns or cities. Sts. 1887, ch. 162. 

§ 795. The selectmen or road commissioners of each town 
shall submit to the inhabitants at every annual meeting a 
report of all the places in which guide-posts are erected and 
maintained within the town, and of all places at which in their 
opinion they ought to be erected and maintained. For each 
neglect or refusal to make such report they shall severally 
forfeit ten dollars. 

§ 796. Upon the report of the selectmen or road commis- 
sioners the town shall determine the several places at which 
guide-posts shall be erected and maintained, which shall be 
recorded in the town records. A town which neglects or 
refuses to determine such places, and to cause a record thereof 
to be made, shall forfeit five dollars for every month during 
which it neglects or refuses so to do ; and in such case, upon 
any trial for not erecting or maintaining guide-posts reported 
to be necessary or convenient by the selectmen or road com- 
missioners, the town shall be estopped from alleging that such 
guide-posts were not necessary or convenient. 

§ 797. At each of the places determined by the town there 
shall be erected a substantial post of not less than eight feet 
in height, near the upper end of which shall be placed a board 
or boards, and upon each board shall be plainly and legibly 
painted or otherwise marked the name of the next town or 
place to which each of such roads leads, and of such other 
town or place of note as the selectmen or road commissioners 
may think proper, together with the distance or number of 
miles to the same ; and also the figure of a hand, with the 
forefinger thereof pointing towards the towns or places to 
which said roads lead ; but the inhabitants of a town may at 
their annual meeting agree upon some suitable substitute for 
such guide-posts. Pub. Stats, ch. 53, §§ 2-4. 

LAYING OUT AND DISCONTINUANCE OF WAYS. 

(a) Town and Private Ways. 
§ 798. The selectmen or road commissioners of the several 
towns may lay out or alter town ways for the use of their 



SURVEYORS OF HIGHWAYS. 289 

respective towns, and private ways for the use of one or more 
of the inhabitants thereof ; or may order specific repairs to be 
made upon such ways. Pub. Stats, ch. 49, § 65. 

" The tribunals which lay out and discontinue Highways are 
required by the statutes to adjudicate upon the question what 
is for the public necessity and convenience." Knowlton, J., 
in Hammond v. County Commissioners, 154 Mass. 509, at p. 510. 

The distinctive character of a road, as a town way or a 
public highway, must to some extent be indicated by the man- 
ner of its creation, or the power which gives it a legal existence. 
The county commissioners have not only authority to lay out 
highways from town to town, that is, passing through various 
towns, but also highways the termini of which are exclusively 
within the same town. The only criterion, therefore, for dis- 
tinguishing between these different species of roads, is to 
ascertain whether the proceedings for their location originated 
with the selectmen, or with the county commissioners. If 
with the former, they must be town ways, as the jurisdiction 
of the selectmen is confined to such ways. Monterey v. 
County Commissioners of Berkshire. 7 Cush. 394; Blackstone 
v. County Commissioners, 108 Mass. 68. 

A majority of the board of selectmen is sufficient to lay out 
a town way. Jones v. Andover, 9 Pick. 146. Dartmouth v. 
County Commissioners, 153 Mass. 12. 

They have authority to lay out a town way wholly upon land 
of citizens, against their consent, entering their land from a 
highway and returning to it at about the same place where it 
enters, and leading to no other way or landing-place, and 
capable of being used for no purposes of business or duty, or 
of access to the land of any other person ; and which is laid 
out with the design to provide access, not for the town merely, 
but for the public, to points or places in the lands of those 
citizens esteemed as pleasing natural scenery. Higginson v. 
Nahant, 11 Allen, 530. 

They have no authority to lay out a town way to be used only 
during a portion of the year. Holcomb v. Moore, 4 Allen, 529. 

Nor can they lay out a landing-place on a town way between 
high-water mark and the channel of a navigable river. Kean 
v. Stetson, 5 Pick. 492. 

19 



290 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

A public way may be established by prescription over a 
private way opened by individuals. Weld v. Brooks, 152 
Mass. 29T. 

§ 799. A town, at a meeting regularly called for the pur- 
pose, may discontinue any town way or private way. Pub. 
Stats, ch. 49, § 66. 

" This section is intended to permit action on the part of a 
town similar in kind to that taken upon a report of selectmen 
laying out a way. It presents a single issue, namely, whether 
a certain existing way shall be discontinued or not. It does 
not authorize the voters to consider whether a way shall be 
altered. Such action can properly be taken only by a tribunal 
proceeding judicially." Knowlton, J., in Lincoln v. Warren, 
150 Mass. 309. 

An alteration of a way by the construction of it in a 
different place, where it will serve all the purposes for which 
it was designed or used, works a discontinuance of that part 
of it not included in the new location, without express words 
to that effect. Com. v. Westborough, 3 Mass. 406 ; Com. v. 
Cambridge, 7 Mass. 158; Bowleg v. Walker, 8 Allen, 21 ; 
Bliss v. Deerfield,l% Pick. 102 ; Johnson v. Wgman, 9 Gray, 
186 ; Hobart v. Plymouth, 100 Mass. 159 ; Com. v. Boston and 
Albany R. R. Co., 150 Mass. 174, at p. 176. 

§ 800. No town way or private way shall be laid out or 
altered unless, seven days at least previously thereto, a written 
notice of the intention of the selectmen or road commissioners 
of the town to lay out or alter the same is left by them, or by 
their order, at the usual place of abode of the owners of the land 
over which such way is proposed to be laid out or altered, or 
unless such notice is delivered to such owner in person, or to 
his tenant or authorized agent. If the owner has no such place 
of abode in the town, and no tenant or authorized agent therein 
known to the selectmen, or if, being a resident in the town, 
he is not known as such to the selectmen or road commis- 
sioners, such notice shall be posted up in some public place in 
the town seven days at least before the laying out of such way. 
Pub. Stats, ch. 49, § 67. 

§ 801. If damage is sustained by a person in his property 
by the laying out, alteration, or discontinuance of a town or 



SURVEYORS OF HIGHWAYS. 291 

private way, or by specific repairs ordered thereon, he shall 
receive such compensation as the selectmen or road commis- 
sioners shall determine, to be assessed and awarded in the 
manner provided for the assessment and award of damages by 
county commissioners in laying out highways (see Pub. Stats. 
ch. 49, §§ 14-16) ; which damages shall be paid by the town if 
it is a town way, but if a private way, then by the person for 
whose use it is laid out or altered, or for whose benefit specific 
repairs are ordered, or on whose application it is discontinued, 
unless the selectmen or road commissioners deem it reasonable 
that part of the damage shall be paid by the town and the 
residue by said persons, in which case they shall make an 
order specifving the sums to be paid by each. Pub. Stats, ch. 
49, § 68. 

The provision in the foregoing section, that the damages 
shall be assessed and awarded in the manner provided for the 
assessment and award of damages by county commissioners 
in laying out highways, has reference to the nature of the 
damages, the deductions to be made for benefits, and the dis- 
tribution of damages among different parties in interest. 
Higginson v. Nahant, 11 Allen, 530. 

§ 802. The damages so awarded shall not be paid until 
the land is entered upon and possession taken for the purpose 
of constructing such way or alteration, or until such specific 
repairs are commenced. And if possession is not taken, or if 
the specific repairs are not made, the party, instead of the 
damages awarded to him, shall be entitled to indemnity, to be 
assessed by the selectmen or road commissioners in the same 
manner that indemnity is awarded by county commissioners 
in like cases. Pub. Stats, ch. 49, § 69. 

The right to compensation under the two preceding sections 
is not confined in terms to owners of land adjoining the high- 
way. Collins v. Waltham, 151 Mass. 196, at p. 198. 

§ 803. Except as is hereinafter provided, no town way or 
private way laid out or altered by the selectmen or road 
commissioners shall be established until such laying out or 
alteration, with the boundaries and admeasurements of the 
way, is reported to the town, and accepted and allowed at 
some public meeting of the inhabitants regularly warned and 



292 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

notified therefor; nor unless such laying out or alteration, 
with the boundaries and admeasurements, is filed in the office 
of the town clerk seven days at least before such meeting. 
Pub. Stats, ch. 49, § 71. 

Reference to a plan containing the admeasurements and 
boundaries is not sufficient unless the plan be filed ; and 
neglect on the part of the selectmen to file their report seven 
days before the meeting renders the alteration invalid, though 
no person applied to the town clerk during the seven days to 
inspect the report. Jeffries v. Swampscott, 105 Mass. 535. 

A vote of a town that the selectmen shall lay out a particu- 
lar town way is unauthorized and improper, it being the 
intention of the statute that the selectmen shall exercise their 
own discretion upon the subject. Kean v. Stetson, 5 Pick. 
492. 

A report by the selectmen of a town of the laying out of a 
town way under this section duly filed in the town clerk's 
office, which recites that after having given proper notice to 
the parties they went upon the " road " referred to, describing 
it by courses, distances, and monuments, is valid, and a suffi- 
cient report to the town of the laying out, and such report 
need not state that no damages were sustained by any one. 
Dartmouth v. County Commissioners, 153 Mass. 12. 

The laying out of a town way is not invalidated because the 
application therefor requests the selectmen to lay out a " public 
highway." Dartmouth v. County Commissioners, ibid. 

Under this section, it is sufficient if the laying out of a town 
way is filed in the office of the town clerk seven days at least 
before the town meeting at which the laying out is reported 
by the selectmen and accepted ; and the report to the town 
announcing the laying out, is not required to be filed seven 
days before such meeting. Carr v. Berkeley, 145 Mass. 539. 

§ 804. If the selectmen or road commissioners unreason- 
ably refuse or neglect to lay out or alter a town way or private 
way, when requested in writing by one or more of the inhabi- 
tants of a town, the county commissioners, on the petition in 
writing of a person aggrieved, presented at a regular meeting 
within one year, may cause such way to be laid out or altered, 
and may ascertain the place and course of the way, and esti- 



SURVEYORS OF HIGHWAYS. 293 

mate the damages sustained by any person by reason thereof. 
Such damages, with all costs of the proceedings, shall be paid 
by the town, if it is a town way. If it is a private way, the 
damages and costs, or such part thereof as the county com- 
missioners judge reasonable, shall be paid by the persons for 
whose use it is laid out or altered, and the residue, if any, by 
the town. Pub. Stats, ch. 49, § 73. 

The omission of selectmen to make a written report to the 
town of their alteration of a town way, on a written petition 
for an alteration, is such a refusal or neglect to alter it as 
gives jurisdiction of the matter to the county commissioners. 
New Marlboro v. County Commissioners, 9 Met. 423. 

It is a question exclusively within the discretion of the 
county commissioners to decide whether a town way, for the 
laying out of which application is made to them on the refusal 
of the selectmen to lay it out, is for the use of the town within 
w T hich it is situated. Monterey v. County Commissioners, 7 
Cush. 394. 

§ 805. If a town unreasonably refuses or delays to approve 
and allow a town way or private way laid out or altered by 
the selectmen or road commissioners, and to put the same on 
record, any person aggrieved thereby may, within one year 
thereafter, apply by petition in writing to the county commis- 
sioners ; and the county commissioners, unless sufficient cause 
is shown against such application, may approve and allow of 
the way as laid out or altered by the selectmen or road com- 
missioners, and may direct the laying out or alteration and 
acceptance to be recorded by the clerk of such town, which 
shall have the like effect as if accepted by the town and 
recorded. 

§ 806. If a town in which a town way or private way is 
laid out, altered, or approved, in pursuance of the three pre- 
ceding sections, does not make and complete the same in the 
manner prescribed by the county commissioners, and to their 
acceptance, within six months from the time when the same 
is laid out or approved, or within the time directed by them, 
they shall, as soon as may be thereafter, cause such way to be 
completed, and at the next meeting shall direct the expenses 
and charges of completing the same to be paid out of the 



294 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

county treasury, and shall order notice thereof to be given to 
the delinquent town, stating the amount of such expenses and 
charges. If the town does not before the next regular meeting 
of the county commissioners pay the same, with interest 
thereon at the rate of ten per cent from the time when the 
same was paid by the county treasurer, they shall cause the 
same with all further costs to be collected. Pub. Stats, ch. 
49, §§ 74, 75. 

§ 807. When a town way has been laid out or altered by 
the county commissioners, it shall not within two years there- 
after be discontinued or altered by the town ; and when such 
way has been discontinued by the county commissioners, the 
town shall not within two years thereafter lay out the same 
again. Pub. Stats, ch. 49, § 77. 

§ 808. A highway or town way may be laid out across 
a railroad previously constructed, when the county commis- 
sioners adjudge that the public convenience and necessity so 
require ; and in such case, after due notice to the railroad 
corporation and hearing all parties interested, they may thus 
lay out, or may authorize a city or town on petition of the 
mayor and aldermen or selectmen thereof to lay out, a way 
across a railroad, in such manner as not to injure or obstruct 
the railroad, and otherwise in conformity with the provisions 
of sections one hundred and nineteen and one hundred and 
twenty of chapter forty-nine of the Public Statutes, but not 
permitting it to cross at a level with the railroad unless 
public necessity so requires, and unless the board also con- 
sents thereto in writing, in which case the county commis- 
sioners may give special authority for such crossing, as pro- 
vided in section one hundred and twenty-three of said chapter. 
Pub. Stats, ch. 112, § 125. 

" The intention of the Legislature has been to impose upon 
the city or town authorized to maintain a way crossing a rail- 
road at grade, the expense and the duty of maintaining the 
way up to the outer line of the railroad tracks, and upon the 
railroad between these outer lines." Devens, J., in Old 
Colony Railroad v. Fall River, 147 Mass. 455. 

"When a railroad is to cross a highway, it must be so con- 
structed as not to obstruct the same. The highway is recog- 



SURVEYORS OF HIGHWAYS. 295 

nized as an existing thing, and if a railroad company finds it 
necessary to cross it, the railroad must be so built that the 
highway will not be obstructed thereby, — [that is] that no 
obstruction of the highway will result from the building of the 
railroad." Allen, J., in Dickenson v. N. H. $ JY". B. B., 155 
Mass. 16, at p. 19. 

Under this section authorizing a highway or town way to be 
laid out across a railroad previously constructed, a footway 
may be laid out. B. $ A. B. B. v. Boston, 140 Mass. 87. 

§ 809. When a town way or private way is laid out or altered 
by the selectmen or road commissioners, or by the county com- 
missioners, they shall in their report or return thereof specify 
the manner in which such way, location, or alteration shall be 
completed, and shall transmit to the clerk a description of the 
location and bounds thereof, which shall, within ten days, be 
recorded by him in a book of records kept for that purpose ; 
and they shall allow the owner of the land through which the 
way passes a reasonable time to take off his trees, fences, and 
other property which may obstruct a building of such way. 
If he neglects to remove the same within the time allowed, he 
shall be deemed to have relinquished his right thereto for the 
benefit of the town, if the way be a town way ; and if it be a 
private way, for the benefit of such person as the selectmen, 
road commissioners, or county commissioners may determine : 
provided that any buildings or materials upon the land shall 
be disposed of in the manner required by section seventeen of 
chapter forty-nine of the Public Statutes. Pub. Stats, ch. 49, 
§80. 

It is contemplated by this section that the adjudication as 
to the " reasonable time " to be allowed to the owner will form 
a portion of the report of the selectmen, so that when accepted 
by the vote of the town, the order will be complete. So that 
where the report contains no provision as to reasonable time, 
the notice is insufficient, and the owner upon his neglect to 
remove such property within the limit, could not be deemed 
to have relinquished it for the benefit of the town, within the 
meaning of this section. White v. Foxborough, 151 Mass. 28, 
at p. 37. 

The surveyor of highways by order of the selectmen began 



296 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

work on a way within the two years in the statute, but there 
was no formal vote of the town until eight years after this, 
when they confirmed the order of the selectmen, and the act 
of the surveyor. Held, that there was a sufficient entry for 
the purpose of construction to comply with the provisions of 
the statute, and to prevent the location over the plaintiff's 
land from being avoided. Grilkey v. Watertown, 141 Mass. 
317. 

The discontinuance of a part of a way as duly laid out over 
several persons' land, all of which has been taken possession 
of by an entry upon part of it for the purpose of construction, 
as provided in the statute, will not deprive such an owner of 
his right to damages for the taking of land in the portion so 
discontinued. Wheeler v. Fitchburg, 150 Mass. 350. 

§ 810. Ways may be laid out, constructed, altered, widened, 
graded, or discontinued, under the provisions of these sections 
notwithstanding the acceptance by any town of any statute 
authorizing the assessment upon estates benefited of a portion 
of the cost of such ways, and every highway or town way 
shall be deemed to be laid out under the provisions of these 
sections unless the order laying out the same expressly declares 
the same to be laid out under the provisions of law authorizing 
the assessment of betterments. Pub. Stats, ch. 49, §§ 92, 93. 

§ 811. No highway, town way, street, turnpike, canal, rail- 
road, or street railway shall be laid out or constructed over a 
common or park dedicated to the use of the public or appro- 
priated to such use without interruption for the period of 
twenty years ; nor shall any part of such common or park be 
taken for widening or altering a highway, town way, or street, 
unless the consent of the inhabitants of the city or town, 
after public notice given in the manner provided in cases of 
the location and alteration of highways -setting forth the 
extent and limits of the portion thereof proposed to be taken, 
in which the same is situated, is first obtained. Such consent 
shall be expressed by vote of the inhabitants, if ten or more 
legal voters file a request in writing to that effect with the 
selectmen or the mayor and aldermen, within thirty days after 
the publication of the notice ; in the absence of such request, 
consent shall be presumed. 



SURVEYORS OF HIGHWAYS. 297 

§ 812. No land of a public institution belonging to the 
Commonwealth shall be taken for a highway, town way, street, 
turnpike, canal, railroad, or street railway, without leave of 
the General Court. Pub. Stats, ch. 54, §§ 13, 15. 

§ 813. No town shall contest the legality of a way laid out 
by it, and accepted and recorded as provided in these sections. 
Pub. Stats, ch. 49, § 82. 

(b) Footways, 

§ 814. Cities and towns may lay out footways for the use 
of the public, in the manner provided for the laying out of 
town ways. 

(c) Rights of Land - Owner When Possession is not Taken or 
Actual Notice Given. 

§ 815. The laying out or alteration of any way under the 
provisions of these sections (chapter forty-nine of the Public 
Statutes) shall be void as against the owner of any land over 
which the same is located, unless possession is taken of such 
land, for the purpose of constructing such way, within two 
years from the time when the right to take such possession 
first accrues ; but an entry for the purpose of constructing any 
part of the laying out or alterations shall be deemed a taking 
of possession of all the lands included in the laying out or 
alterations made upon the same petition. Pub. Stats, ch. 49, 
§§ 83, 88. 

(d) Dedication of Ways. 

§ 816. No way opened and dedicated to the public use, 
which has not become a public way, shall be chargeable upon 
a city or town as a highway or town way, unless the same is 
laid out and established by such city or town in the manner 
prescribed by the statutes of the Commonwealth. 

§ 817. The mayor and aldermen and selectmen or road 
commissioners shall, when the public safety demands it, direct 
and cause the entrances of such ways entering on and uniting 
with an existing public highway to be closed up, or may by 
other sufficient means caution the public against entering upon 
such ways ; and if any such way is not closed, or if sufficient 



298 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

notice is not given that the same is dangerous, the city or town 
shall be liable for damages arising from defects therein, in the 
same manner as if it had been duly laid out and established. 
Pub. Stats, ch. 49, §§ 94, 95. 

(e) Ascertaining Location. 

§ 818. When ten or more freeholders represent to the 
mayor and aldermen of a city or selectmen or road commis- 
sioners of a town that the exact location of a street, road, or 
way, over which they have jurisdiction, cannot be readily 
ascertained, they shall make investigation thereof ; and, if it 
appears that the representation is correct, shall, after giving 
the notice required in laying out a similar road or way, proceed 
to ascertain the correct location, erect the necessary bounds, 
and file a certificate thereof, for record, in the manner stated 
in §§ 809 ante and 819 post. 

(f) Erection of Monuments. 

§ 819. The county commissioners, mayor and aldermen, 
selectmen, and road commissioners, shall cause permanent 
stone bounds, not less than three feet long, two feet of which 
at least shall be set in the ground, to be erected at the termini 
and angles of all roads laid out by them, when practicable ; 
and when not so, a heap of stones, a living tree, a permanent 
rock, or the corner of an edifice, may be a substitute for such 
stones ; or said bounds may be permanent stone bounds not 
less than three feet long, with holes drilled therein, and filled 
with lead, placed a few inches below the travelled part of the 
street or way, as the officer whose duty it is to cause the same 
to be erected may determine. And if they neglect to establish 
such monuments after being notified so to do by an owner of 
land through which there is any such way laid out, since the 
twenty-fifth day of April in the year eighteen hundred and 
forty-eight, the county if it is a county road, and the city or 
town if it is a city or town road, shall pay to the owner of the 
land fifty dollars for each month that such neglect continues, 
to be recovered in an action of tort. 



SURVEYORS OF HIGHWAYS. 299 

(g) Taking of Earth and Gravel, 
§ 820. The mayor and aldermen of cities, and the select- 
men or road commissioners of towns, may select and lay out 
land within their respective limits, not appropriated to public 
uses or owned by any other city or town, as gravel and clay 
pits, from which may be taken earth and gravel necessary for 
the construction, repair, or improvement of streets or ways, 
and may lay out such ways as they deem necessary for con- 
venient access thereto. All proceedings in relation to such 
land and ways shall be the same as are provided in the laying 
out of streets and town ways respectively ; and the report of 
such laying out shall specify the extent and depth of excava- 
tion to be permitted, and the time, not exceeding ten years, 
during which such land or way shall be held and used. Pub. 
Stats, ch. 49, §§ 97-99. 

SEWERS, DRAINS, AND SIDEWALKS, 
(a) Sewers and Drains. 

§ 821. The mayor and aldermen of a city, and the select- 
men or road commissioners of a town, may lay, make, and 
maintain all such main drains or common sewers as they 
adjudge to be necessary for the public convenience or the 
public health, through the lands of any persons or corporations, 
and may repair the same whenever it is necessary; main 
drains and common sewers so laid shall be the property of the 
city or town. Cities and towns may with the approval of the 
state board of health, obtained after a public hearing by said 
board of all parties interested, purchase or take land within 
their respective limits for the purification and disposal of 
sewage. Said board shall give notice of such hearings by pub- 
lication in such newspapers and at such times as it may deem 
proper. Sts. 1890, ch. 124. 

While no particular form of words is made necessary by 
the statute to be used by the authorities in laying out a sewer, 
yet there must be such a laying out before any assessment 
therefor can be made ; and this must be done with sufficient 
precision to show what the sewer is, or is to be, for which 
parties are liable to be assessed, or from the construction of 



300 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

which their estates may to some extent receive damage. 
Leominster v. Conant, 139 Mass. 384. 

Sewers and main drains belong to the cities and towns ; 
and although the road commissioners who are given authority 
to maintain them are no more the agents of the town than 
highway surveyors when exercising highway surveyors' duties, 
still the interest of the towns in the sewers is so distinct from 
that of the public at large that they are held to the ordinary 
responsibilities of owners. Bates v. Westborough, 151 Mass. 
174, at p. 184. 

A town is liable to a landowner for damages resulting from 
neglect to keep its sewers free from obstructions. Bates v. 
Westborough, 151 Mass. 174. 

§ 822. When land is taken by virtue of the preceding sec- 
tion, the proceedings in a city shall be the same as in the lay- 
ing out of highways or streets therein ; and in towns, the same 
as in the laying out of town ways. Pub. Stats, ch. 50, § 2. 

If private land has been entered upon and possession taken 
by the selectmen of a town for the purpose of constructing a 
way which has been laid out by the selectmen and accepted 
by the town, a sewer may be constructed in the way by the 
selectmen without further notice or proceedings. Lawrence v. 
JSTahant, 136 Mass. 477. 

§ 823. Damages occasioned by the laying, making, or 
maintaining of main drains or common sewers shall- be ascer- 
tained and recovered, in a city as in the laying out of high- 
ways or streets therein ; and in towns, as in the laying out of 
town ways. Pub. Stats, ch. 50, § 3. 

A town which under this section, lawfully takes land and 
constructs a common sewer therein, whereby a well upon land 
not taken, and not adjoining land taken, is made dry, the well 
being fed by water percolating through the soil, is liable under 
this section to pay damages therefor to the owner of the land 
in which the well is situated. Trowbridge v. Brookline, 144 
Mass. 139. 

§ 824. Every person who enters his particular drain into 
such main drain or common sewer, or who, by more remote 
means, receives benefit thereby for draining his cellar or land, 
shall pay to the city or town a proportional part of the charge 



SURVEYORS OF HIGHWAYS. 801 

of making and repairing the same, and of the charge, not al- 
ready assessed, of making and repairing other main drains and 
common sewers through which the same discharges, to be 
ascertained, assessed, and certified by the mayor and aldermen 
or selectmen ; and notice thereof shall be given to the party 
to be charged, or to his tenant or lessee. Pub. Stats, ch. 50, § 4. 

The statute fixes no time within which an assessment upon 
persons benefited by a common sewer may be made. The 
board whose duty it is to make the assessment must decide 
therefore, in its discretion, as to when it shall be made. 
Fairbanks v. Fitchburg, 132 Mass. 42. 

Under a system of sewerage, the abutter is to pay his 
proportional cost, not merely of the abutting sewer, but of 
constructing the system of sewers of which it forms a part. 
Devens, J., in Leominster v. Conant, 139 Mass. 384. 

A notice in writing of a sewer assessment, with a demand 
for payment, given to a person benefited by the treasurer of 
the city or town, under an order of the mayor and aldermen 
or of the selectmen, ordering him to collect it, is sufficient. 
Collins v. Holyoke, 146 Mass. 298. 

§ 825. The city council of a city or the legal voters of a 
town may adopt a system of sewerage for a part or the whole 
of its territory, and may provide that assessments shall be 
made upon owners of estates within such territory by a fixed 
uniform rate, based upon the estimated average cost of all the 
sewers therein, according to the frontage of such estates on 
any street or way where a sewer is constructed, or according 
to the area of such estates within a fixed depth from such 
street or way, or according to both such frontage and area ; 
but no assessment in respect to any such estate which by 
reason of its grade or level, or for any other cause, cannot be 
drained into such sewer, shall be made, certified, or notified 
until such incapacity is removed. Pub. Stats, ch. 50, § 7. 

The assessment upon an estate for the construction of a 
sewer by a city (-or town) is to be made according to the value 
of the land exclusive of the buildings ; and in determining 
the amount of such assessment, the relative benefit which each 
estate on the line of the sewer may receive, is immaterial. 
Snow v. Fitchburg, 136 Mass. 183. 



302 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

A sewer assessment cannot be laid upon a cemetery corpo- 
ration's land, which by its charter is perpetually set apart 
as a burial-place for the dead, and can neither be sold, used 
for profit, nor appropriated to any other purpose.- Mount 
Auburn Cemetery v. Cambridge, 150 Mass. 12. 

§ 826. The mayor and aldermen of any city except Boston, 
or a town in which main drains or common sewers are laid, 
may by vote determine that, instead of paying an assessment 
under § 824 ante, every person who uses such main drains or 
common sewers in any manner shall pay for the permanent 
privilege to his estate such reasonable sum as the mayor and 
aldermen or the selectmen or road commissioners shall deter- 
mine. Pub. Stats, ch. 50, § 8. 

§ 827. All drains and common sewers in a street or high- 
way shall be substantially made or repaired with brick or 
stone, or with such other materials and in such manner as the 
selectmen or road commissioners may direct. 

§ 828. Plans and descriptions of all main drains and com- 
mon sewers belonging to a city or town, with a true record of 
the charges of making and repairing the same, and of all 
assessments therefor, shall be kept in the office of the city or 
town clerk. Pub. Stats, ch. 50, §§ 13, 14. 

§ 829. Whoever has occasion to open a common sewer or 
main drain in order to clear and repair the same shall, seven 
days at least before he begins to open the same, give notice to 
all parties interested, by advertising in such manner as the 
selectmen or road commissioners may direct that such parties 
may object thereto and state their objections in person or in 
writing to the selectmen or road commissioners ; and if they 
judge the objections reasonable, the parties making the same 
shall not be held to pay any part of such expenses ; but if they 
do not so make their objections within tliree days after such 
notice, or if the objections are not adjudged reasonable, the 
selectmen or road commissioners shall in writing permit the 
persons applying to open such common sewer or main drain, 
and to clear and repair the same ; and all persons interested 
therein shall pay their proportions, to be determined by the 
selectmen or road commissioners of the town, and certified 
under their hands. Pub. Stats, ch. 50, § 18. 



SURVEYORS OF HIGHWAYS. 303 



(b) Sidewalks. 



§ 830. In cities in which the city council, and in towns in 
which the inhabitants, have adopted the provisions of this and 
the following section, or of the corresponding provisions of 
earlier statutes, the mayor and aldermen or selectmen or road 
commissioners may establish and grade sidewalks in such 
streets as in their judgment the public convenience may 
require, and may assess the abutters on such sidewalks one 
half the expense of the same, the residue being paid by such 
city or town. All assessments so made shall be a lien upon 
the abutting lands, and be collected in the same manner as 
taxes on real estate. 

§ 831. No sidewalk constructed or graded in a city or 
town shall be dug up or obstructed in any part thereof without 
the consent of the mayor and aldermen of the city, or of the 
selectmen or road commissioners of the town. 

§ 832. In cities in which the city council, and in towns in 
which the inhabitants at an annual meeting, have adopted the 
provisions of chapter three hundred and three of the statutes 
of the year eighteen hundred and seventy-two, and of chapter 
one hundred and seven of the statutes of the year eighteen 
hundred and seventy-four, or of this and the following section, 
the mayor and aldermen, or the selectmen or road commis- 
sioners, may grade and construct sidewalks and complete 
partially constructed sidewalks in any street, as the public con- 
venience may require, with or without edgestones ; and may 
cover the same with brick, flat stones, concrete, gravel, or 
other appropriate material ; and may assess not exceeding one 
half of the expense proportionally upon the abutters on such 
sidewalks : but no abutter shall be assessed a sum exceeding 
one per cent of the valuation of his abutting estate as fixed by 
the last preceding annual assessment for taxes ; and all 
assessments so made shall constitute a lien upon the abutting 
land, and be collected in the same manner as taxes on real 
estate. The mayor and aldermen, selectmen, or road commis- 
sioners, shall deduct from the assessment for sidewalks so 
constructed with edgestones and covered any sum previously 
assessed upon the abutting premises, and paid for the expense 



304 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

of the construction of such sidewalk in any other manner ; 
such deduction shall be made proportionally from the assess- 
ments upon abutters who are owners of estates in respect of 
which such former assessments were paid. Such sidewalks, 
when so constructed and covered, shall be maintained at the 
expense of such city or town. 

§ 833. In estimating the damage sustained by the con- 
struction of sidewalks under the preceding section, there shall 
be allowed, by way of set-off, the benefit, if any, to the 
property of the party by reason thereof. Pub. Stats, ch. 50, 
§§ 20-23. 

(c) Apportionment of Sewer and Sidewalk Assessments. 

§ 834. In a city or town which has accepted the provisions 
of this section, or of chapter two hundred and forty-nine of 
the statutes of the year eighteen hundred and seventy-eight, 
if the owner of real estate within sixty days after notice of a 
sewer or sidewalk assessment thereon notifies in writing the 
board making such assessment to apportion the same, said 
board shall apportion it into three equal parts, and certify 
such apportionment to the assessors ; and the assessors shall 
add one of said parts, with interest from the date of appor- 
tionment, to the annual tax of said real estate for each of the 
three years next ensuing. All liens for the collection of such 
assessments shall continue until the expiration of two years 
from the time when the last instalment is committed to the 
collector ; and all sewer and sidewalk assessments remaining 
unpaid after the time of payment stated in the order making 
the same shall draw interest from such time until paid. Pub. 
Stats, ch. 50, § 25. 

BETTERMENTS. 

§ 835. At any time within two years after a street, high- 
way, or other way is laid out, altered, widened, graded, or 
discontinued in a city or town by an order declaring the same 
to be done under the provisions of law authorizing the assess- 
ment of betterments, if in the opinion of the board of city or 
town officers authorized to lay out streets or ways respectively 
therein, any real estate, including that a part of which is 



SURVEYORS OF HIGHWAYS. 305 

taken therefor, receives any benefit and advantage therefrom 
beyond the general advantages to all real estate in the city or 
town, such board may determine the value of such benefit and 
advantage to such estate, and may assess upon the same a 
proportional share of the expense of such laying out, altera- 
tion, widening, grading, or discontinuance ; but no such 
assessment shall exceed one half of the amount of such ad- 
judged benefit and advantage ; nor shall the same be made 
until the work of laying out, altering, widening, and grad- 
ing is completed, or the discontinuance made. Pub. Stats. 
eh. 51, § 1. 

An assessment for betterments is not invalid because the 
adjudication is only that the estates a have been benefited " 
and does not declare that they receive any benefit beyond the 
general advantages to all real estate in the city. Jones v. 
Boston, 104 Mass. 461, 469 ; Foley v. Haverhill, 144 Mass. 
352. 

Damages for taking land for the widening and improvement 
of a way are to be based upon the value of the land regardless 
of the widening, and are not to include any enhanced value 
due to the contemplated improvement. Benton v. Broohline, 
151 Mass. 250. 

§ 836. Whenever the authorities empowered to locate, lay 
out, or construct streets, ways, or public parks, in a city or 
town, shall take by purchase or otherwise any land therefor, 
such authorities may make an agreement in writing with the 
owner of such land that the city or town shall assume any 
betterments assessed upon the remainder of such owner's 
lands, or any portion thereof, for such location, laying out, 
and construction, and such agreement shall be binding on 
such city or town : provided, such owner shall, on such terms 
as may be agreed upon with said authorities, release to the 
city or town all claims for damages on account of locating, 
laying out, and constructing such street, way, or park. Sts. 
1884, ch. 226. 

The assessment of damages and betterments cannot be sub- 
mitted to arbitration, except so far as provided in this section. 
Somerville v. Bicherman, 127 Mass. 272. 

The benefit to land caused by the widening of a street is to 

20 



306 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

be assessed according to its value at the date of the widening. 
Treadwell v. Boston, 123 Mass. 23. 

§ 837. Any such assessment which is invalid, and which 
has not been paid or has been recovered back, may be reas- 
sessed by such board, to the amount for which the original 
assessment ought to have been made, and the same shall be a 
lien upon the estate, and shall be collected in the same manner 
as reassessed taxes. Pub. Stats, ch. 51, § 2. 

§ 838. The expense so assessed shall include all damages 
for land and buildings taken ; and in estimating such damages 
the value of all buildings on the land a part of which is taken 
shall be included, and there shall be deducted therefrom the 
value of the materials removed, and of all buildings or parts 
of buildings remaining thereon; and the damages for land 
taken shall be fixed at the value thereof before such laying 
out, alteration, or widening, and shall be paid in the same 
manner, and upon the same conditions, as in other cases of 
the laying out, alteration, widening, grading, or discontinuance 
of streets and ways. Pub. Stats, ch. 51, § 3. 

On the assessment of damages under this section, for the 
taking land for widening a way, special benefits resulting 
from the widening are not to be set off against damages, but 
are to be separately assessed, and evidence of such benefits or 
advantages is inadmissible. Benton v. Brookline, 151 Mass. 
250. 

If buildings standing wholly or partially on land taken for 
widening a way may properly and reasonably be removed 
therefrom by the land owner, the expense of removal is a 
proper element of damage in assessing his damages, as bearing 
upon which evidence of the actual reasonable cost of removing 
them is competent. Benton v. Brookline, 151 Mass. 250. 

§ 839. A person owning real estate abutting on any such 
street, highway, or other way, and liable to such assessment, 
may give notice in writing to such board, before the estimate of 
damages is made, that he objects to the same, and elects to 
surrender his estate ; and if said board adjudges that the public 
convenience and necessity require the taking of such abutting 
estate for the improvements named, they may take the whole 
thereof, and shall thereupon estimate its value, excluding the 



SURVEYORS OF HIGHWAYS. 307 

benefit or advantage accrued from the laying out, alteration, 
widening, grading, or discontinuance ; and such owner shall 
convey the estate to such city or town, which shall pay him 
therefor the value so estimated, and the same may be recovered 
by an action of contract ; and the city or town may sell any 
portion of said estate not needed for such improvements. 

§ 840. Every such assessment shall constitute a lien upon 
the real estate assessed, to be enforced with like charges for 
costs and interest in the manner provided by law for the col- 
lection of taxes ; and if the owner at any time before demand 
made gives notice to such board to apportion such an assess- 
ment, said board shall apportion the same into three equal 
parts, and shall certify such apportionment to the assessors ; 
and the assessors shall add one of said parts, with interest 
from the date of apportionment, to the annual tax of said 
estate for each of the three years next ensuing ; and all such 
assessments remaining unpaid after they become due shall 
draw interest until the payment thereof. Pub. Stats, ch. 51, 
§§ 4, 5. 

§ 841. The preceding sections shall not take effect in any 
town which has not accepted the provisions of chapter one 
hundred and sixty-nine of the statutes of the year eighteen 
hundred and sixty-nine, or of chapter three hundred and 
eighty-two of the statutes of the year eighteen hundred and 
seventy-one, until accepted at a legal town meeting. Pub. 
Stats, ch. 51, § 10. 

STREET RAILWAYS, 
(a) Construction and use of Tracks. 
§ 842. The board of aldermen of a city or the selectmen 
of a town, upon the petition of such directors or a majority 
thereof, for a location of the tracks of the railway therein, 
shall give notice to all parties interested, by publication in 
newspapers or otherwise as they may determine, at least four- 
teen days before their meeting, of the time and place at which 
they will consider such location; and after a hearing they 
shall pass an order refusing such location, or granting the 
same or any portion thereof under such restrictions as they 
deem the interests of the public may require ; and the location 



308 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

thus granted shall be deemed and taken to be the true location 
of the tracks of the railway, if an acceptance thereof by said 
directors in writing is filed with said mayor and aldermen or 
selectmen within thirty days after receiving notice thereof. 
Pub. Stats, ch. 113, § 7. 

§ 843. The board of aldermen or the selectmen may, from 
time to time, under such restrictions as they deem the interests 
of the public may require, upon petition, authorize a street 
railway company whose charter has been duly accepted and 
whose tracks have been located and constructed, or its lessees 
and assigns, to extend the location of its tracks within their 
city or town, without entering upon or using the tracks of 
another street railway company ; and such extended location 
shall be deemed to be the true location of the tracks of the 
company, if its acceptance thereof in writing is filed in the 
office of the clerk of the city or town within thirty days after 
receiving notice thereof. Before acting upon the petition, 
at least fourteen days' notice of the hearing shall be given 
to all parties interested, by publication in such newspapers 
as the board of aldermen or selectmen may determine, or 
otherwise. 

§ 844. The location and position of the tracks of any street 
railway company may be altered upon application of a party 
interested, by the same authority and in the same manner as 
is provided in the preceding section for the location of an 
extension. Such alteration shall be made by the company 
within such time, and the expense thereof shall be borne 
by such party, as the board of aldermen or selectmen may 
determine. 

§ 845. The board of aldermen or the selectmen, at any 
time after the expiration of one year from the opening for use 
of a street railway in their city or town, and after notice 
published in the manner stated in § 843 ante, and a hearing, if 
in their judgment the interests of the public so require, may 
order that the location of any track shall be revoked ; and the 
company shall thereupon remove the same in conformity with 
such order, and shall put the street in as good condition as it 
was in immediately before being occupied by said track. Pub. 
Stats, ch. 113, §§ 21-23. 



SURVEYORS OF HIGHWAYS. 309 

§ 846. If a street railway company voluntarily discontinues 
the use of any part of its tracks for a period of six months, 
the streets or highways occupied thereby shall, upon the order 
of the board of aldermen or selectmen, forthwith, at the 
expense of the company, be cleared of said tracks, and put in 
as good condition for public travel as they were in immediately 
before being so occupied. 

§ 847. The board of aldermen or selectmen may order a 
street railway company to discontinue temporarily the use of 
any tracks within the limits of their city or town, whenever 
they adjudge that the safety or convenience of the inhabitants 
requires such discontinuance. 

(b) Operation of Road, Streets, etc. 

§ 848. The board of aldermen or selectmen may from time 
to time establish such regulations as to the rate of speed, mode 
of use of the tracks, and removal of snow and ice therefrom, 
within their city or town, as the interest and convenience of 
the public may require. Pub. Stats, ch. 113, §§ 25-27. 

§ 849. The board of aldermen or selectmen may from time 
to time make such regulations as to the manner and extent 
of use of tracks, and the number and routes of cars of any 
and all companies running over the same, within their city or 
town, as the interest of public travel may require. Pub. 
Stats, ch. 113, § 29. 

§ 850. Cities and towns may for any lawful purpose take 
up streets or highways traversed by street railways, or may 
alter or discontinue the same as authorized by law, without 
being liable in damages therefor to a street railway company. 

§ 851. Every street railway company shall keep in repair, 
to the satisfaction of the superintendent of streets, street com- 
missioner, road commissioners, or surveyors of highways, the 
paving, upper planking, or other surface material of the por- 
tions of streets, roads, and bridges occupied by its tracks ; and 
if such tracks occupy unpaved streets or roads, shall, in addi- 
tion, so keep in repair eighteen inches on each side of the 
portion occupied by its tracks, and shall be liable for any loss 
or injury that any person may sustain by reason of the care- 
lessness, neglect, or misconduct of its agents and servants in 



310 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

the construction, management, and use of its tracks. Pub. 
Stats, ch. 113, §§ 31, 32. 

§ 852. Every street railway company shall erect and main- 
tain upon every bridge or draw of a bridge crossed by its track 
suitable guards or railings, sufficient to prevent its cars from 
running off, and to the satisfaction of the board of aldermen 
of the city or the selectmen of the town in which such draw 
or bridge, or any portion thereof, is situated. 

§ 853. The board of aldermen or selectmen may establish 
such regulations, requiring the driver or conductor to give 
notice or warning of the approach of street cars, as shall 
in their opinion best secure the unobstructed use of the 
tracks and the free passage of the cars. Pub. Stats, ch. 113, 
§§ 34, 36. 

§ 854. A street railway company may use such motive- 
power on its tracks as the board of aldermen of cities, or the 
selectmen of towns, through which it is located, may from 
time to time permit. 

§ 855. The board of aldermen of a city, the selectmen of a 
town, or fifty legal voters of a city or town in which a street 
railway is located, may apply to the board of railroad commis- 
sioners, who shall after due notice and hearing of the parties 
interested, revise and regulate the fares established by such 
company ; but such fares shall not, without the consent of the 
company, be so reduced as to yield, with all other profits 
derived from operating its road, an income of less than ten 
per cent upon the actual cost of the construction of its road 
and the purchase of property for its necessary use, to be 
determined by said board. The report of the board shall 
be final and conclusive for one year. Pub. Stats, ch. 113, 
§§ 39, 44. 

TELEGRAPH COMPANIES. 

§ 856. Every company incorporated for the transmission 
of intelligence by electricity may under the provisions of the 
following section construct lines of electric telegraph upon 
and along the highways and public roads, and across any 
waters, within the state, by the erection of the posts, piers, 
abutments, and other fixtures (except bridges) necessary to 



SURVEYORS OF HIGHWAYS. 311 

sustain the wires of its lines ; but shall not incommode the 
public use of highways or public roads, nor endanger or inter- 
rupt the navigation of any waters. Pub. Stats, ch. 109, 

§§ 1. 2- 

§ 857. The mayor and aldermen or selectmen of any place 
through which the lines of a company are to pass, shall give 
the company a writing specifying where the posts may be 
located, the kind of posts, and the height at which and the 
places where the wires may run. After the erection of the 
lines, having first given the company or its agents opportunity 
to be heard, they may direct any alteration in the location or 
erection of the posts, piers, or abutments, and in the height of 
the wires. Such specifications and decisions shall be recorded 
in the records of the city or town. Pub. Stats, ch. 109, § 3. 

The foregoing sections apply to companies incorporated 
under the laws of this state. The determination of the select- 
men as to where the posts may stand is conclusive upon the 
rightfulness of their erection within the limits of a highway. 
Commonwealth v. Boston, 97 Mass. 555. 

§ 858. The mayor and aldermen and selectmen shall each 
receive for services performed under the foregoing sections, 
two dollars a day. Pub. Stats, ch. 109, § 5. 

§ 859. The selectmen may establish reasonable regulations 
for the erection and maintenance of all telegraph and telephone 
lines within their respective towns, including all lines owned 
or used by said towns, and may permit the same to be laid 
under any public way or square. Pub. Stats, ch. 27, § 47. 

§ 860. The selectmen of a town may empower citizens of 
Massachusetts to establish and maintain, in such town, posts, 
wires, and other apparatus for telegraphic and telephonic 
communication, in conformity with the provisions of the pre- 
ceding sections, and other laws now or hereafter applicable to 
telegraph or telephone companies. Pub. Stats, ch. 27, § 49. 

§ 861. All provisions of law granting authority to erect, 
lay, and maintain, and to regulate telegraph and telephone 
lines, apply to all corporations and persons having authority 
to place posts, wires, etc., in the streets for any purpose, and 
to all telephone wires, electric and otherwise. Sts. 1889, 
chs. 398, 434. 



312 THE TOWN OFFICER. 



CHAPTER IX. 

SCHOOL COMMITTEES AND PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 

(a) In general. 

§ 862. Every town shall, at its annual meeting, or at a 
meeting appointed and notified by the selectmen for the pur- 
pose, and held in the same month in which the annual meeting 
occurs, choose by written ballots a school committee, which 
shall have the general charge and superintendence of all the 
public schools in the town. Said committee shall consist of 
any number of persons divisible by three which said town has 
decided to elect, one third thereof to be elected annually, and 
to continue in office three years. No person shall be deemed 
to be ineligible to serve upon a school committee by reason of 
sex. If a town fails or neglects to choose such committee, an 
election at a subsequent meeting shall be valid. Pub. Stats. 
ch. 44, § 21. 

The charge and superintendence which they are to take of 
the schools is general ; they can delegate subordinate matters. 
Huse v. Lowell, 10 Allen, 149. 

But the power of fixing times of vacation and granting 
holidays for schools resides only in the committee. Ninth 
School District in Weymouth v. Loud, 12 Gray, 61. 

The school committee is a board of public officers whose 
duties are prescribed by statute, and in the execution of its 
duties the members do not act as agents of the town, but as 
public officers in the performance of public duties. McKenna 
v. Kimball, 145 Mass. 555, at p. 55Q. 

The decision of the committee on matters of good order and 
discipline, is final so far as it relates to the rights of pupils to 
enjoy school privileges. Hodgkins v. Rockport, 105 Mass. 
475. Watson v. Cambridge, 32 N. E. Rep. 864 (Mass. Jan. 
1893). 

" The management of the schools involves many details, and 
it is important that a board of public officers dealing with 



SCHOOL COMMITTEES AND PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 313 

these details, and having jurisdiction to regulate the internal 
affairs of the schools should not be interfered with or have 
their conduct called in question before another tribunal, so 
long as they act in good faith within their jurisdiction." 
Knowlton, J., in Watson v. Cambridge, 32 N. E. Rep. 864 
(Mass. Jan. 1893). 

§ 863. If a person elected a member of the school com- 
mittee, after being duly notified of his election in the manner 
in which town officers are required to be notified, refuses or 
neglects to accept said office, or if a member of the committee 
declines further service, or from change of residence or other- 
wise becomes unable to attend to the duties of the committee, 
the remaining members shall, in writing, give notice of the 
fact to the selectmen of the town, or to the mayor and alder- 
men of the city, and the two boards shall thereupon, after 
giving public notice of at least one week, proceed to fill such 
vacancy ; and a majority of the ballots of persons entitled to 
vote shall be necessary to an election. 

§ 864. If all the persons elected members of the school 
committee, after such notice of their election, refuse or neglect 
to accept the office, or, having accepted, afterwards decline 
further service, or become unable to attend to the duties of the 
committee, the selectmen or the mayor and aldermen shall, 
after giving like public notice, elect by ballot a new committee, 
and the votes of a majority of the entire board of selectmen, 
or of the mayor and aldermen, shall be necessary to an election. 

§ 865. The term of service of every member elected in 
pursuance of the provisions of the two preceding sections shall 
end with the municipal or official year in which he is chosen ; 
and if the vacancy which he was elected to fill was for a 
longer period, it shall, at the first annual election after the 
occurrence of the vacancy, be filled in the manner prescribed 
for original elections of the school committee. 

§ 866. All the members of the school committee shall 
continue in office for the purpose of superintending the winter 
terms of the several schools, and of making and transmitting 
the certificate, returns, and report of the committee, notwith- 
standing the election of any successor at the annual meeting ; 
but for all other duties, the term of office shall commence 



314 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

immediately after election; except that, in cities where no 
different provision has been specifically made, the term of 
office of members of the school committee shall commence at 
the time provided in regard to members of the several city 
councils. 

§ 867. A town may, at its annual meeting, vote to increase 
or diminish the number of its school committee. Such increase 
shall be made by adding one or more to each class, to hold 
office according to the tenure of the class to which they are 
severally chosen. Such diminution shall be made by choosing, 
annually, such number as will in three years effect it, and 
a vote to diminish shall remain in force until the diminution 
under it is accomplished. 

§ 868. The school committee shall appoint a secretary and 
keep a permanent record book, in which all its votes, orders, 
and proceedings shall by him be recorded. Pub. Stats, ch. 
44, §§ 22-27. 

§ 869. In every town there shall be kept, for at least six 
months in each year, at the expense of said town, by a teacher 
or teachers of competent ability and good morals, a sufficient 
number of schools for the instruction of all the children 
who may legally attend public school therein, in orthography, 
reading, writing, English grammar, geography, arithmetic, 
drawing, the history of the United States, and good behavior. 
Algebra, vocal music, agriculture, sewing, physiology, hygiene, 
and the elementary use of hand tools shall be taught, by lec- 
tures, or otherwise, in all the public schools in which the 
school committee deem it expedient. Pub. Stats, ch. 44, § 1 ; 
Sts. 1884, ch. 69. 

In any town where such tools shall be introduced, they shall 
be purchased by the school committee, at the expense of such 
town, and loaned to such pupils as may be allowed to use 
them, free of charge ; subject to such rules and regulations, as 
to care and custody, as the school committee may prescribe. 
Sts. 1884, ch. 69. 

§ 870. Physiology and hygiene, which, in both divisions of 
the subject, shall include special instruction as to the effects 
of alcoholic drinks, stimulants, and narcotics on the human 
system, shall be taught as a regular branch of study to all 



SCHOOL COMMITTEES AND PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 315 

pupils in all schools supported wholly or in part by public 
money, except special schools maintained solely for instruction 
in particular branches, such as drawing, mechanics, art, and 
like studies. All acts or parts of acts relating to the qualifi- 
cations of teachers in the public schools shall apply to the 
branch of study prescribed in this act. Sts. 1885, ch. 332. 

§ 871. Every town may, and every town containing five 
hundred families or householders, according to the latest 
public census taken by the authority either of the Common- 
wealth or of the United States, shall, besides the schools pre- 
scribed in the preceding section, maintain a high school, to be 
kept by a master of competent ability and good morals, who, 
in addition to the branches of learning before mentioned, shall 
give instruction in general history, book-keeping, surveying, 
geometry, natural philosophy, chemistry, botany, the civil 
polity of this Commonwealth and of the United States, and 
the Latin language. Such high school shall be kept for the 
benefit of all the inhabitants of the town, ten months at least, 
exclusive of vacations, in each year, and at such convenient 
place or alternately at such places in the town as the legal 
voters at their annual meeting determine. And in every town 
containing four thousand inhabitants, the teacher or teachers 
of the schools required by this section shall, in addition to the 
branches of instruction before required, be competent to give 
instruction in the Greek and French languages, astronomy, 
geology, rhetoric, logic, intellectual and moral science, and 
political economy. Pub. Stats, ch. 44, § 2. 

§ 872. Any town not required by law to maintain a high 
school shall pay for the tuition of any child who with the 
parent or guardian resides in said town and who attends the 
high school of another town or city, provided the parent or 
guardian of such child before such attendance obtains the 
approval of the school committee of the town in which the 
child and parent or guardian reside. Sts. 1891, ch. 263, § 1. 

§ 873. Two adjacent towns, having each less than five 
hundred families or householders, may form one high school 
district for establishing such a school as is contemplated in the 
preceding section, when a majority of the legal voters of each 
town, in meetings called for that purpose, so determine. 



316 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

§ 874. The school committees of the two towns so united 
shall elect one person from each of their respective boards, and 
the two so elected shall form the committee for the manage- 
ment and control of such school, with all the powers conferred 
upon school committees and prudential committees. 

§ 875. The committee thus formed shall determine the loca- 
tion of the schoolhouse authorized to be built by the towns 
forming the district, or, if the towns do not determine to erect 
a house, shall authorize the location of such school alternately 
in the two towns. 

§ 876. In the erection of a schoolhouse for the permanent 
location of such school, in the support and maintenance of the 
school, and in all incidental expenses attending the same, the 
proportions to be paid by each town, unless otherwise agreed 
upon, shall be according to its proportion of the county tax. 
Pub. Stats, ch. 44, §§ 3-6. 

§ 877. Every town and city having ten thousand or more 
inhabitants, shall establish and maintain, in addition to the 
schools required by law to be maintained therein, evening 
schools for the instruction of persons over twelve years of 
age in orthography, reading, writing, geography, arithmetic,, 
drawing, the history of the United States, and good behavior. 
Such other branches of learning may be taught in such schools 
as the school committee of the town shall deem expedient. 

§ 878. The school committee of such towns shall have the 
same superintendence over such evening schools as they have 
over other schools, and may determine the term or terms of 
time in each year, and the hours of the evening, during which 
such schools shall be kept, and may make such regulations as 
to attendance at such schools as they may deem expedient. 
Sts. 1883, ch. 174, §§ 1, 2. 

§ 879. Two weeks next before the opening of each term 
of the evening schools, the school committee shall, by posters 
posted in three or more public places of said city or town, 
give notice of the location of said schools, the date of the 
commencement of the term, the evenings of the week during 
which said schools shall be kept, the provisions of section two 
of this act as to forfeiture for non-compliance with said sec- 
tion, and such regulations as to attendance as they shall deem 
proper. Sts. 1887, ch. 433, § 4. 



SCHOOL COMMITTEES AND PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 317 

§ 880. In all the public schools of the Commonwealth the 
last regular session prior to Memorial Day, or a portion thereof, 
shall be devoted to exercises of a patriotic nature. Sts. 1890, 
ch. 111. 

§ 881. Any town may, and every city and town having 
more than ten thousand inhabitants shall, annually make pro- 
vision for giving free instruction in industrial or mechanical 
drawing to persons over fifteen years of age, in either day or 
evening schools, under the direction of the school committee. 

§ 882. A town may establish and maintain one or more 
industrial schools, which shall be under the superintendence 
of the school committee, who shall employ the teachers, pre- 
scribe the arts, trades, and occupations to be taught therein, 
and have the general control and management thereof ; but 
they shall not expend for any such school an amount exceed- 
ing the appropriation specifically made therefor, and shall not 
compel any scholar to study any trade, art, or occupation 
without the consent of his parent or guardian ; and attendance 
upon such school shall not take the place of the attendance 
upon public schools required by law. 

§ 883. A town may establish and maintain, upon shore or 
upon ships or other vessels at the option of the school com- 
mittee, one or more schools for training young men or boys in 
nautical duties ; such schools shall be subject to the provisions 
of the preceding section, except that the school committee 
may excuse boys attending such nautical schools from 
attendance on other schools. 

§ 884. Two or more towns may, by a vote of a majority of 
the legal voters in each town, unite in establishing union 
schools for the accommodation of such contiguous portions of 
each as shall be mutually agreed upon. 

§ 885. The management and control of such schools, the 
location of the same or of the schoolhouses therefor, and the 
apportionment of the expenses of erecting such schoolhouses 
and of the support and maintenance of said schools, with all 
expenditures incident to the same, shall be governed by the 
statements in §§ 874, 875, and 876 ante. 

§ 886. A town may establish and maintain, in addition to 
the schools required by law to be maintained therein, schools 



318 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

for the education of persons over twelve years of age ; may 
determine the term or terms of time in each year, and the 
hours of the day or evening, during which said school shall be 
kept ; and may appropriate such sums of money as may be 
necessary for the support thereof. 

§ 887. When a school is so established, the school committee 
shall have the same superintendence over it as they have over 
other schools, and shall determine what branches of learning 
may be taught therein. 

§ 888. In every public school having an average of fifty 
scholars the school district or town to which such school 
belongs shall employ one or more female assistants, unless 
such district or town votes to dispense with such assistant. 

§ 889. It shall be the duty of the president, professors, and 
tutors of the university at Cambridge and of the several 
colleges, of all preceptors and teachers of academies, and of 
all other instructors of youth, to exert their best endeavors to 
impress on the minds of children and youth committed to 
their care and instruction the principles of piety and justice 
and a sacred regard to truth ; love of their country, humanity, 
and universal benevolence ; sobriety, industry, and frugality ; 
chastity, moderation, and temperance ; and those other virtues 
which are the ornament of human society and the basis upon 
which a republican constitution is founded ; and it shall be 
the duty of such instructors to endeavor to lead their pupils, 
as their ages and capacities will admit, into a clear under- 
standing of the tendency of the above-mentioned virtues to 
preserve and perfect a republican constitution and secure the 
blessings of liberty as well as to promote their future happi- 
ness, and also to point out to them the evil tendency of the 
opposite vices. 

§ 890. The resident ministers of the go,spel,the selectmen, 
and the school committees, shall exert their influence and use 
their best endeavors that the youth of their towns shall regu- 
larly attend the schools established for their instruction. 

§ 891. The several towns shall at their annual meetings, 
or at a regular meeting called for the purpose, raise such sums 
of money for the support of schools as they judge necessary ; 
which sums shall be assessed and collected in like manner as 
other town taxes. Pub. Stats, ch. 44, §§ 7-17. 



SCHOOL COMMITTEES AND PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 319 

§ 892. A town which refuses or neglects to raise money 
for the support of schools as required by this chapter shall 
forfeit a sum equal to twice the highest sum ever before voted 
for the support of schools therein. A town which refuses or 
neglects to choose a school committee to superintend its 
schools, or to choose prudential committees in the several dis- 
tricts, when it is its duty to choose such prudential committees, 
shall forfeit not less than five hundred nor more than one 
thousand dollars, to be paid into the treasury of the county. 

§ 893. Three fourths of any forfeiture so paid shall be paid 
by the county treasurer to the school committee, if any, other- 
wise to the selectmen of the town from which it is recovered, 
who shall apportion and appropriate the same to the support 
of the schools of such town in the same manner as if it had been 
regularly raised by the town for that purpose. Pub. Stats. 
ch. 44, §§ 19, 20. 

§ 894. The school committee, unless the town at its annual 
meeting determines that the duty may be performed by the 
prudential committee, shall select and contract with the 
teachers of the public schools ; shall require full and satisfac- 
tory evidence of the good moral character of all teachers who 
may be employed ; and shall ascertain, by personal examina- 
tion, their qualifications for teaching, and their capacity for 
the government of schools. Pub. Stats, ch. 44, § 28. 

The power conferred on school committees " to select and 
contract with the teachers for the town and district schools," 
includes the power to fix the compensation to be paid them, 
and to bind the town to pay the same. Batchelder v. Salem, 4 
Cush. 599. 

The town authorities have no power to interfere with such 
duties of the committee ; they can only vote to limit the school 
to the time prescribed by statute, and resolve, if they choose, 
not to continue it beyond such time. Charlestown v. Gardner, 
98 Mass. 587 ; Batchelder v. Salem, 4 Cush. 599. 

The authority and duty of the school committee of a town 
are not confined to ascertaining by examination the literary 
qualifications of teachers selected by the prudential committee, 
and their capacity for the government of schools ; but they 
are the sole judges of their qualification in all respects to 



320 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

teach and govern the school for which they are selected. 
School Dist. No. 10 in Uxbridge v. Mowry et al., 9 Allen, 94. 

§ 895. The diplomas granted by the state normal schools 
of this Commonwealth to the graduates of such schools may 
be accepted by the school committees of towns and cities in 
lieu of the personal examination required by the preceding 
section. Sts. 1891, ch. 159. 

§ 896. The school committee of any city or town may elect 
any duly qualified person to serve as a teacher in the public 
schools of such city or town during the pleasure of such com- 
mittee: provided such person has served as a teacher in the 
public schools of such city or town, for a period of not less 
than one year. Sts. 1886, ch, 313. 

§ 897. Every teacher of a town or district school shall, 
before he opens such school, obtain from the school committee 
a certificate in duplicate of his qualifications, one of which 
shall be deposited with the selectmen before any payment is 
made to such teacher on account of his services ; and upon so 
riling such certificate, the teacher of any public school shall be 
entitled to receive, on demand, his wages due at the expiration 
of any quarter, or term longer or shorter than a quarter, or 
upon the close of any single term of service, subject to the 
conditions which are specified in § 935 post. Pub. Stats, ch. 
44, § 29. 

§ 898. The school committee may, when they think proper, 
dismiss any teacher from employment, and such teacher shall 
receive no compensation for services rendered after such dis- 
missal. Pub. Stats, ch. 44, § 30. 

A teacher so dismissed can recover only that portion of the 
salary due at the time of such dismissal, even if under an 
annual salary payable at stated periods of time. Knowles v. 
Boston, 12 Gray, 339. 

§ 899. The school committee, or some one or more of them, 
in each town where there is no superintendent of schools, 
shall for the purpose of organizing and making a careful ex- 
amination of the schools, and of ascertaining that the scholars 
are properly supplied with books, visit all the public schools 
therein on some day during the first week after the opening 
of such schools, and on some day during the two weeks prece- 



SCHOOL COMMITTEES AND PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 321 

ding the close of the same, and also, without giving previous 
notice thereof to the instructors, once in each month ; and 
they shall at such examinations inquire into the regulation 
and discipline of the schools and into the habits and proficiency 
of the scholars. 

§ 900. The school committee shall require the daily reading 
in the public schools of some portion of the Bible, without 
written note or oral comment ; but they shall not require a 
scholar, whose parent or guardian informs the teacher in 
writing that he has conscientious scruples against it, to read 
from any particular version, or to take any personal part in 
the reading ; nor shall they direct to be purchased or used in 
the public schools school-books calculated to favor the tenets 
of any particular sect of Christians. 

§ 901. The school committee shall direct what books shall 
be used in the public schools, and shall prescribe, as far as is 
practicable a course of studies and exercises to be pursued 
therein. These exercises may, at the discretion of the com- 
mittee, include calisthenic, gymnastic, and military drill : pro- 
vided, that no special instructors shall be employed to teach 
gymnastic, calisthenic, or military drill, except by a two-thirds 
vote of the committee present and voting thereon. But no 
pupil shall be required to take part in any military exercise 
in case he, his parent or guardian, notifies the school commit- 
tee that he or such parent or guardian has conscientious 
scruples against such exercise, or believes it would be injuri- 
ous to the health of said pupil. 

§ 902. A change may be made in the school-books used in 
the public schools in a town by a vote of two thirds of the 
whole school committee thereof at a meeting of said committee, 
notice of such intended change having been given at a previous 
meeting. Pub. Stats, ch. 44, §§ 31-34. 

§ 903. The school committee of every city and town shall 
purchase, at the expense of such city or town, text-books and 
other school supplies used in the public schools ; and said 
text-books and supplies shall be loaned to the pupils of said 
public schools free of charge, subject to such rules and regu- 
lations as to care and custody as the school committee may 
prescribe. Sts. 1884, ch. 103. 

21 



322 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

§ 904. School committees may procure, at the expense of 
the city or town, in accordance with appropriations therefor 
previously made, such apparatus, books of reference, and 
other means of illustration as they deem necessary for the 
schools under their supervision. Sts. 1885, ch. 161, § 2. 

§ 905. In any town containing five hundred families and 
in which a high school is kept as before provided, the school 
committee shall perform the duties in relation to such school, 
the house where it is kept, and the supply of all things neces- 
sary therefor, which the prudential committee may perform 
in a school district. 

§ 906. Each member of the school committee in cities 
shall be paid one dollar a day, and in towns two dollars and a 
half a day, for the time actually employed in discharging the 
duties of the office, together with such additional compensation 
as the city or town may allow, except as provided in the fol- 
lowing section. 

(b) Superintendents of Public Schools. 

§ 907. A city by ordinance, and a town by vote, may re- 
quire the school committee annually to appoint a superinten- 
dent, who, under the direction and control of said committee, 
shall have the care and supervision of the public schools ; or 
the school committee of any city without such ordinance may 
appoint a superintendent by a majority vote of the whole 
board ; the compensation of the superintendent shall not be 
less than one dollar and fifty cents for each day of actual ser- 
vice, and shall be determined by the school committee, and, 
in cities without such ordinance, by a majority vote of the 
whole board ; in every city in which such ordinance is in 
force or in which a superintendent is appointed, and in every 
town in which a superintendent is appointed and which does 
not provide otherwise by vote, the school committee shall 
receive no compensation. 

§ 908. Two or more towns may, by a vote of each, form a 
district for the purpose of employing a superintendent of 
public schools therein, who shall perform in each town the 
duties prescribed by law. 



SCHOOL COMMITTEES AND PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 323 

§ 909. Such superintendent shall be annually appointed by 
a joint committee, composed of the chairman and secretary of 
the school committee of each of the towns in said district, who 
shall determine the relative amount of service to be performed 
by him in each town, and shall fix his salary and apportion 
the amount thereof to be paid by the several towns, and cer- 
tify such amount to the treasurer of each town. Said joint 
committee shall, for said purposes, be held to be the agents of 
each town composing such district. 

(c) Schoolhouses. 

§ 910. Every town shall provide and maintain a sufficient 
number of schoolhouses, properly furnished and conveniently 
located for the accommodation of all the children therein en- 
titled to attend the public schools ; and the school committee, 
unless the town otherwise directs, shall keep such houses in 
good order, and shall procure a suitable place for the schools, 
where there is no schoolhouse, and provide fuel and all other 
things necessary for the comfort of the scholars therein, at the 
expense of the town. A town which for one year refuses or 
neglects to comply with the requirements of this section shall 
forfeit not less than five hundred nor more than one thousand 
dollars. 

§ 911. A town, at a meeting legally called for the purpose, 
may determine the location of its schoolhouses, and adopt 
all necessary measures to purchase and procure land for the 
accommodation thereof. Pub. Stats, ch. 44, §§ 41-47. 

§ 912. When land has been designated by a town, or has 
been determined upon by the selectmen of a town, as a suit- 
able place for the erection of a schoolhouse and necessary 
buildings, or for enlarging a schoolhouse or schoolhouse lot, 
the selectmen may proceed to select, at their discretion, and 
to lay out a schoolhouse lot or an enlargement thereof, and to 
appraise the damages to the owner of such land in the manner 
provided for laying out town ways and appraising damages 
sustained thereby ; and upon the approval and adoption by 
the town of such selection and laying out of such lot, or of 
any enlargement thereof, the land shall be taken, held, and 
used for such purpose. But no lot so taken or enlarged shall 



324 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

exceed in the whole eighty square rods, exclusive of the land 
occupied by the school buildings. The land so taken shall be 
held and used for no other purpose than that contemplated by 
this chapter, and shall revert to the owner, his heirs or assigns, 
upon the discontinuance there, for one year, of such school 
as is required by law to be kept by the town. Pub. Stats. ch* 
44, §§ 48, 49. 

§ 913. The school committee of a town shall have the 
general charge and superintendence of the schoolhouses there- 
in, so far as relates to the uses to which the same may be 
appropriated. Pub. Stats, ch. 44, § 50. 

§ 914. Public buildings and schoolhouses must be kept 
clean, and free from effluvia, and they must be ventilated. 
School committees or persons having charge of these buildings 
are liable to a fine of one hundred dollars for neglecting this 
provision. Sts. 1888, ch. 149. 

SCHOOL FUND. 

§ 915. One-half of the annual income of the school fund 
of the Commonwealth shall be apportioned and distributed, 
without a specific appropriation, for the support of public 
schools, and in the manner following, to wit : Every town 
complying with all laws in force relating to the distribution of 
said income and whose valuation of real and personal estate, 
as shown by the last preceding assessors' valuation thereof, 
does not exceed one-half million dollars, shall annually receive 
two hundred and seventy-five dollars ; every such town whose 
valuation is more than one-half million dollars, and does not 
exceed one million dollars, shall receive two hundred dollars ; 
and every such town whose valuation is more than one million 
dollars, and does not exceed two million dollars, shall receive 
one hundred dollars ; and every such town whose valuation is 
more than two million dollars, and does not exceed three million 
dollars, shall receive fifty dollars. The remainder of said half 
shall be distributed to all towns whose valuation does not exceed 
three million dollars and whose annual tax rate for the support 
of public schools is not less than one sixth of their whole tax 
rate for the year, as follows : Every town whose public school tax 
is not less than one third of its whole tax shall receive a propor- 



SCHOOL COMMITTEES AND PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 325 

tion of said remainder expressed by one third ; every such town 
whose school tax is not less than one fourth of its whole tax 
shall receive a proportion expressed by one fourth ; every such 
town whose school tax is not less than one fifth of its whole 
tax shall receive a proportion expressed by one fifth ; and 
every such town whose school tax is not less than one sixth 
of its whole tax shall receive a proportion expressed by one 
sixth. All money appropriated for other educational purposes, 
unless otherwise specially provided, shall be paid from the 
other half of said income. If the income in any year exceeds 
such appropriations the surplus shall be added to the principal 
of said fund. Sts. 1891, ch. 177. 

§ 916. The income of said fund, appropriated to the sup- 
port of public schools, which has accrued on the thirty-first 
day of December in each year, shall be apportioned by the 
secretary and treasurer in the manner provided in the preced- 
ing section, and paid over by the treasurer to the treasurers of 
the several cities and towns on the twenty-fifth day of January 
thereafter. 

§ 917. No such apportionment and distribution shall be 
made to a city or town which has not maintained a school as 
is stated in § 869 ante, or which, if containing the number 
of families or householders which are stated in § 871 ante, 
has not maintained, for at least thirty-six weeks during the 
year, exclusive of vacations, a high school such as is mentioned 
therein ; or which has not made the returns which are stated 
in §§ 926 and 928 post and complied with the laws relating to 
truancy ; or which has not raised by taxation for the wages 
and board of teachers, fuel for the schools, and care of fires 
and schoolrooms during the school year embraced in the last 
annual returns, a sum not less than three dollars for each per- 
son between the ages of five and fifteen years belonging to such 
city or town on the first day of May of said school year. 

§ 918. The income of said fund received by the several 
cities and towns shall be applied by the school committees 
thereof to the support of the public schools therein ; but said 
committees may, if they see fit, appropriate therefrom any 
sum, not exceeding twenty-five per cent of the same, to the 
purchase of books of reference, maps, and apparatus for the 
use of said schools. 



326 THE TOWN OFFICER. '" 

§ 919. Each of the towns of Mashpee, Gay Head, Edgar- 
town, Tisbury, Sandwich, and Plymouth shall, at its discretion, 
apply, for the benefit of that portion of its inhabitants formerly 
called Indians, the money heretofore received by it from the 
distribution of the school fund for Indians, derived from the 
surplus revenue of the United States. 

§ 920. The schoolhouses heretofore erected by the Com- 
monwealth upon Indian lands shall continue to be the property 
of the towns within which they are severally situated. Pub. 
Stats, ch. 43, §§ 4-8. 

SCHOOL KEGISTERS AND RETURNS. 

§ 921. The clerks of the several cities and towns, upon 
receiving from the secretary of the board of education the 
school registers and blank forms of inquiry for school returns, 
shall deliver them to the school committee of such cities and 
towns. 

§ 922. If a school committee fails to receive such blank 
forms of return on or before the last day of March, they shall 
forthwith notify the secretary of the board of education, who 
shall transmit such forms as soon as may be. 

§ 923. The school committees shall annually, in the month 
of May, ascertain, or cause to be ascertained, the names and 
ages of all persons, between the ages of five and fifteen years, 
belonging to their respective cities and towns on the first day 
of May, and shall make a record thereof. Pub. Stats, ch. 46, 

§§ 1-3- 

§ 924. No child who has been continuously a resident of a 
city or town since reaching the age of thirteen years shall be 
entitled to receive a certificate that he has reached the age of 
fourteen unless or until he has attended school according to 
law in such city or town for at least twenty weeks since 
reaching the age of thirteen, unless such child can read at 
sight and write legibly simple sentences in the English lan- 
guage or is exempted by law from such attendance. Sts. 
1889, ch. 291. 

§ 925. The school committee shall annually, on or before 
the last day of the following April, certify under oath the 
numbers so ascertained and recorded, and the sum raised by 



SCHOOL COMMITTEES AND PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 327 

their city or town for the support of schools during the preced- 
ing school year, including only wages and board of teachers, 
fuel for the schools, and care of the fires and schoolrooms ; 
and they shall transmit such certificate to the secretary of the 
board of education. The form of such certificate shall be as 
follows, to wit : — 

We, the school committee of , do certify that on the first 

day of May, in the year , there were belonging to said town 

(or city) the number of persons between the ages of five and 

fifteen ; and we further certify that said town (or city) raised the 
sum of dollars for the support of public schools for the pre- 

ceding school year, including only the wages and board of teachers, 
fuel for the schools, and care of fires and schoolrooms, and that said 
town (or city) maintained, during said 3 r ear, each of the schools 
required to be kept by section one of chapter fort3 T -four of the 
Public Statutes for a period not less than six months ; and we 
further certify that said town (or city) maintained during said year 
school for the benefit of all the inhabitants of the town (or 
cit} r ), as required by section two of chapter forty-four of the Public 
Statutes for months and days. 

( School Committee. 

ss. On this day of personally appeared the 

above-named school committee of and made oath that the 

above certificate by them subscribed is true. 

Before me, Justice of the Peace. 

§ 926. The school committee shall cause the school regis- 
ters to be faithfully kept in all the public schools, and shall 
annually, on or before the last day of April, return the blank 
forms of inquiry, duly filled up, to the secretary of the board 
of education ; and shall also specify in said returns the pur- 
poses to which the money received by their town or city from 
the income of the school fund has been appropriated. 

§ 927. In such returns, twenty days or forty half-days of 
actual session shall be counted as one month. Pub. Stats. 
ch. 46, §§ 5-7. 

§ 928. The school committee shall annually make a de- 
tailed report of the condition of the several public schools, 
which report shall contain such statements and suggestions 



328 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

in relation to the schools as the committee deem necessary or 
proper to promote the interests thereof. The committee shall 
cause said report to be printed, for the use of the inhabitants, 
in octavo, pamphlet form, of the size of the annual reports of 
the board of education, and transmit two copies thereof to the 
secretary of said board on or before the last day of April, and 
deposit one copy in the office of the clerk of the city or town. 
Pub. Stats, ch. 46, § 8. 

A town may appropriate money to indemnify its school 
committee for expenses incurred in defending an action for 
an alleged libel contained in a report made by them in good 
faith, and in which judgment has been rendered in their favor. 
Fuller v. Groton, 11 Gray, 340. 

A school committee of a city caused to be printed an 
address by them to the people of the city regarding an occur- 
rence in the public schools, and referred to such address in 
their subsequently printed annual report as a part thereof. 
Held, that they were authorized to charge the expense of 
printing the address upon the city, under this section. 
Wilson v. Cambridge, 101 Mass. 142. 

§ 929. When a school committee fails to make, within the 
prescribed time, either the returns or the report required of 
them by law, the secretary of the board of education shall 
forthwith notify such committee, or the clerk of the city or 
town, of such failure ; and the committee or clerk shall imme- 
diately cause the same to be transmitted to the secretary. 

§ 930. If a report or return is found to be informal or in- 
correct, the secretary shall forthwith return the same, with a 
statement of all deficiencies therein, to the committee for its 
further action. 

§ 931. The returns or reports of a city or town so returned 
by the secretary for correction, or which haye not reached his 
office within the time prescribed by law, shall be received by 
him if returned during the month of May ; but in all such 
cases ten per cent shall be deducted from the income of the 
school fund which such city or town would have been other- 
wise entitled to. If such returns or reports fail to reach his 
office before the first day of June, then the whole of such city 
or town's share of the income shall be retained by the treas- 



SCHOOL COMMITTEES AND PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 329 

urer of the Commonwealth ; and the amount so retained, as 
well as the ten per cent when deducted, shall be added to the 
principal of the school fund. And such city or town shall in 
addition thereto forfeit not less than one hundred nor more 
than two hundred dollars ; but if said returns and reports 
were duly mailed in season to reach said office within the 
time required by law, then the city or town from which 
they were due shall be exempt from the forfeiture otherwise 
incurred. 

§ 932. The clerk of each city and town shall deliver one 
copy of the reports of the board of education and of its secre- 
tary to the secretary of the school committee of the city or 
town, to be by him preserved for the use of the committee, 
and transmitted to his successor in office ; and two additional 
copies of said reports, for the use of said committee ; and shall 
deliver one copy of said reports to the clerk of each school 
district, to be by him deposited in the school-district library, 
or, if there is no such library, carefully kept for the use of the 
prudential committee, teachers, and inhabitants of the district 
during his continuance in office, and then transmitted to his 
successor ; and in case the city or town is not districted, said 
reports shall be delivered to the school committee, and so 
deposited by them as to be accessible to the several teachers 
and to the citizens ; and such reports shall be deemed to be 
the property of the city or town, and not of any officer, teacher, 
or citizen thereof. 

§ 933. When the school committee of a city or town is not 
less than thirteen in number, the chairman and secretary 
thereof may, in behalf of the committee, sign the annual 
school returns and the certificate stated in §§ 925 and 926. 

§ 934. A city or town which has forfeited any part of its 
portion of the income of the school fund through the failure 
of the school committee to perform their duties in regard 
to the school report and school returns, may withhold the 
compensation of the committee. Pub. Stats, ch. 46, §§ 9-14. 

§ 935. The several school teachers shall faithfully keep 
the registers furnished to them and make due return thereof 
to the school committee or to such person as they may desig- 
nate, and no teacher shall be entitled to receive payment for 



330 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

services for the two weeks preceding the close of any single 
term until the register properly filled up and completed is so 
returned. Sts. 1891, ch. 99, § 1. 

The school committee have no authority to waive this 
keeping of the register. Jewell v. Abington, 2 Allen, 592. 

ATTENDANCE OF CHILDREN IN THE SCHOOLS. 

§ 936. Every person having under his control a child 
between the ages of eight and fourteen years, shall annually 
cause such child to attend some public day school in the city 
or town in which he resides, and such attendance shall con- 
tinue for at least thirty weeks of the school year if the schools 
are kept open that length of time, with an allowance of two 
weeks' time for absences not excused by the superintendent of 
schools or the school committee, and for every neglect of such 
duty the person offending shall, upon the complaint of the 
school committee or any truant officer, forfeit to the use of 
the public schools of such city or town a sum not exceeding 
twenty dollars ; but if such child has attended for a like period 
of time a private day school approved by the school committee 
of such city or town, or if such child has been otherwise 
instructed for a like period of time in the branches of learning 
required by law to be taught in the public schools, or has 
already acquired the branches of learning required by law to 
be taught in the public schools, or if his physical or mental 
condition is such as to render such attendance inexpedient or 
impracticable, such penalties shall not be incurred. Sts. 1890, 
ch. 384. 

§ 937. For the purposes of the preceding section, school 
committees shall approve a private school only when the 
teaching in all the studies required by law is in the English 
language, and when they are satisfied {hat such teaching 
equals in thoroughness and efficiency the teaching in the 
public schools in the same locality, and that equal progress is 
made by the pupils therein, in the studies required by law, 
with that made during the same time in the public schools ; 
but they shall not refuse to approve a private school on 
account of the religious teaching therein. Sts. 1889, ch. 
464, § 2. 



SCHOOL COMMITTEES AND PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 331 

§ 938. In every city and town where opportunity is 
furnished, in connection with the regular work of the public 
schools, for gratuitous instruction in the use of tools or in 
manual training, or for industrial education in any form, every 
person having under his control a child between the ages of 
eight and fifteen years shall cause such child to attend the 
public schools during the same number of weeks in each 
school year during which attendance is now by law required 
in the case of children between the ages of eight and fourteen 
years, and subject to the same exceptions ; and for neglect of 
such duty the person offending shall be liable to the same 
forfeiture, to be enforced in the same manner and subject to 
the same exceptions as now provided by law in case of neglect 
to require the attendance of a child between the ages of eight 
and fourteen years. Sts. 1891, ch. 361. 

§ 939. The truant officers and the school committee of the 
several cities and towns shall vigilantly inquire into all cases 
of neglect of the duty prescribed in § 936 ante, and ascertain 
the reasons, if any, therefor ; and such truant officers, or any of 
them, shall, when so directed by the school committee, prose- 
cute, in the name of the city or town, any person liable to the 
penalty provided for in said section. Police, district, and 
municipal courts, trial justices, and judges of the probate 
court, shall have jurisdiction within their respective counties 
of the offences described in said section. 

§ 940. All children within the Commonwealth may attend 
the public schools in the place in which they have their legal 
residence, subject to the regulations prescribed by law. 

§ 941. The school committee shall determine the number 
and qualifications of the scholars to be admitted into the high 
school. 

§ 942. Children living remote from any public school in 
the town in which they reside may be allowed to attend the 
public schools in an adjoining town, under such regulations 
and on such terms as the school committees of the said towns 
agree upon and prescribe ; and the school committee of the 
town in which such children reside shall pay the sum agreed 
upon out of the appropriations of money raised in said town 
for the support of schools. 



332 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

§ 943. Any minor under guardianship, whose father has 
died, may attend the public schools of the city or town of 
which his guardian is an inhabitant. 

§ 944. Children may, with the consent of the school com- 
mittee first obtained, attend schools in cities and towns other 
than those in which their parents or guardians reside ; but 
when a child resides in a city or town different from that of 
the residence of the parent or guardian for the sole purpose of 
attending school there, the parent or guardian of such child 
shall be liable to pay such city or town, for tuition, a sum 
equal to the average expense per scholar for such school for 
the period during which the child so attends. 

§ 945. The school committee shall not allow a child who 
has not been duly vaccinated to be admitted to or connected 
with the public schools. Pub. Stats, ch. 47, §§ 3-9. 

§ 946. The school committees shall not allow any pupil to 
attend the public schools while any member of the household 
to which such pupil belongs is sick of smallpox, diphtheria, 
or scarlet fever, or during a period of two weeks after the 
death, recovery, or removal of such sick person ; and any 
pupil comiug from such household shall be required to pre- 
sent, to the teacher of the school the pupil desires to attend, 
a certificate, from the attending physician or board of health, 
of the facts necessary to entitle him to admission in accord- 
ance with the above regulation. Sts. 1885, ch. 198. 

§ 947. No person shall be excluded from a public school on 
account of the race, color, or religious opinions of the appli- 
cant or scholar. Pub. Stats, ch. 47, § 10. 

The school committee of a town may lawfully pass an order 
that the schools thereof shall be opened each morning with 
reading from the Bible, and prayer, and that during the prayer 
each scholar shall bow the head, unless his parents request 
that he should be excused from doing so, and may lawfully 
exclude from the school a scholar who refuses to comply with 
such order, and whose parents refuse to request that he shall 
be excused from doing so. Spiller v. Woburn, 12 Allen, 127. 

§ 948. Every member of the school committee under whose 
directions a child is excluded from a public school, and every 
teacher of such school from which a child is excluded, shall, 



SCHOOL COMMITTEES AND PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 333 

on application by the parent or guardian of such child, state 
in writing the grounds and reason of the exclusion. Pub, 
Stats, eh. 47, § 11. 

TRUANT CHILDREN AND ABSENTEES FROM SCHOOL, 

§ 949. Each town shall make all needful provisions and 
arrangements concerning habitual truants and children be- 
tween seven and fifteen years of age who may be found wan- 
dering about in the streets or public places therein, having no 
lawful occupation or business, not attending school, and grow- 
ing up in ignorance, and such children as persistently violate 
the reasonable rules and regulations of the common schools ; 
and shall make such by-laws as shall be most conducive to 
the welfare of such children, and to the. good order of such 
town ; and shall provide suitable places for the confinement, 
discipline, and instruction of such children. Sts. 1889, ch. 
249, § 1. 

§ 950. The school committee of each town shall appoint 
and fix the compensation of two or more suitable persons, to 
be designated truant officers, who shall, under the direction of 
said committee, inquire into all cases arising under such by- 
laws, and shall alone be authorized, in case of violation thereof, 
to make complaint and carry into execution the judgment 
thereon ; and who may serve all legal processes issued by the 
courts in pursuance of such by-laws, but who shall not be 
entitled to receive any fees for such service. Pub. Stats, ch. 
48, § 11. 

§ 951. Truant officers may, when so authorized and re- 
quired by vote of the school committee, visit the factories, 
workshops, and mercantile establishments in their several 
cities and towns, and ascertain whether any children under 
the age of fourteen are employed therein, contrary to the 
provisions of chapter 348 of the Acts of 1888, and they shall 
report any cases of such illegal employment to the school 
committee. Sts. 1888, ch. 348, § 8. 

§ 952. Any minor convicted under a by-law made under 
§ 949 ante of being an habitual truant, or of wandering about 
in the streets and public places of a city or town, having no 
lawful employment or business, not attending school, and 



334 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

growing up in ignorance, or of persistently violating the rules 
and regulations of the common schools, shall be committed to 
any institution of instruction or suitable situation provided for 
the purpose, under the authority of said section or by-law, for 
a term not exceeding two years. Sts. 1889, ch. 249, § 2. 

§ 953. Whenever a truant school has been established for 
any county under the provisions of this chapter, it shall be 
the place of confinement, discipline, and instruction for all 
truants within the cities or towns of said county, unless said 
cities or towns have made other provisions therefor. 

§ 954. If three or more towns in any county so require, 
the county commissioners shall establish at the expense of 
the county, at a convenient place therein, other than the jail 
or house of correction, a truant school for the confinement, 
discipline, and instruction of minor children convicted under 
the provisions stated in §§ 949 and 952 and all Acts in amend- 
ment thereof and in addition thereto ; and shall make suitable 
provisions for the government and control, and for the appoint- 
ment of proper teachers and officers thereof. Sts. 1890, ch. 
309, §§1,2. 

§ 955. A town may assign any such truant school, or, 
with the assent of the state board of lunacy and charity, the 
state primary school, as the place of confinement, discipline, 
and instruction of children so convicted ; and shall pay for 
their support therein such sum, not exceeding two dollars a 
week for each child, as the county commissioners or the trus- 
tees of the state primary and reform schools respectively shall 
determine. Pub. Stats, ch. 48, § 15 ; Sts. 1886, ch. 101, § 4. 

§ 956. The school committees of the several towns shall 
annually report to the secretary of the board of education 
whether their towns have made the provisions required by law 
relating to truants and absentees from school. Pub. Stats. 
ch. 48, § 17. 



COLLECTORS OF TAXES. 335 



CHAPTER X. 

COLLECTORS OF TAXES. 

§ 957. Towns may choose suitable persons to be collectors 
of taxes therein. If the persons chosen refuse to serve, or if 
no person is elected or appointed, the constables of the town 
shall be the collectors of taxes. Sts. 1893, ch. 423, § 17. 

A selectman and assessor of a town may legally be chosen 
collector of taxes also. Howard v. Proctor, 7 Gray, 128. 

The refusal to accept the office need not appear of record. 
And no further oath is required of a constable, acting as col- 
lector, if he has been duly sworn as constable. Hays v. Drake, 
6 Gray, 387. 

§ 958. Every collector shall give bond to the town, in such 
sum as the selectmen require, and with sureties to their satis- 
faction, for the faithful discharge of the duties of his office. 
Sts. 1893, ch. 423, § 18. 

The foregoing provisions of the statute are directory as to 
the manner of giving bonds by one appointed collector. And 
the collector may properly refuse to give a bond in any greater 
sum than the selectmen require. But if a collector voluntarily 
gives a bond to the town to secure his faithful discharge of 
the duties of the office of collector, and the same is accepted, 
it is a good and valid bond without any further evidence of 
the approval by the selectmen of the sum or the sureties. 
Wendell v. Fleming, 8 Gray, 613. 

The removal of the collector from office does not discharge 
him from liabilities that have already attached for defaults in 
the duties of his office. In all cases where, by reason of his 
remissness in enforcing the collections, the tax has been un- 
collected, and from a change of circumstances is unavailable 
in the hands of his successor, he will be chargeable therewith. 
Colerain v. Bell, 9 Met. 499. 

Defects in a warrant or tax-list will not excuse a collector 
from paying over money to the town which he has collected 



336 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

without objection on the part of the tax-payers. He can only 
avail himself of such defects as have prevented him from per- 
forming his duty ; and the defects in the warrant or tax-list 
might be a good excuse for not executing the warrant. Sand- 
wich v. Fish, 2 Gray, 298. 

Nor is a collector excused from paying over money to the 
town by reason of its being stolen from him without any de- 
fault on his part. Hancock v. Hazard, 12 Cush. 112. 

§ 959. A town may, at a meeting notified for that purpose, 
authorize its collector to use all means of collecting the taxes 
which a town treasurer when appointed collector may use. 
Sts. 1893, ch. 423, § 19. 

§ 960. Every collector of taxes, constable, sheriff, or deputy 
sheriff, receiving a tax-list and warrant from the assessors, 
shall proceed to collect the taxes therein mentioned, according 
to the warrant. Sts. 1888, ch. 390, § 1. 

If the warrant is good upon its face, it will protect the col- 
lector acting under it, notwithstanding irregularity in the 
meetings or votes by which the taxes were authorized. Howard 
v. Proctor, 7 Gray, 128. 

§ 961. The collector shall, as soon as possible after receiv- 
ing any tax list and warrant, send a notice to each person 
assessed, resident and non-resident, of the amount of his tax ; 
and such notice, if sent through the mail, shall be postpaid 
and directed to the city or town which was the place of resi- 
dence of such person on the first day of May of the year in 
which the tax was assessed, and if sent to a resident of the 
city in which the tax is assessed, shall be directed to the 
street and number of his residence, if possible. If the person 
is assessed for a poll tax only, the notice shall be sent on or 
before the second day of September of the year in which the 
tax is assessed. An omission to send, the notice herein 
required shall not invalidate a tax or proceedings for the 
collection or enforcement of the same. 

§ 962. Every collector shall make and keep, in the book 
committed to him by the assessors containing the tax list, 
against the name of every person or corporation assessed for 
a tax, entries showing the disposition thereof, whether re- 
assessed, abated, or paid, and the date of such disposition. 
Sts. 1889, ch. 334, §§ 1, 2. 



COLLECTORS OF TAXES. 337 

§ 963. Every collector of taxes shall also keep a cash 
book, in which he shall enter as they are received all sums 
paid to such collector, specifying in relation to such receipts 
the total amount of tax ; abatements allowed ; discount al- 
lowed ; interest charged ; total amount received ; and time 
when received. Said collector shall also keep a record of the 
date and amount of every payment and disbursement made 
by him, and to whom paid, together with such other matters 
as any city or town may require. 

§ 964. All books kept by any collector of taxes by virtue 
of any provision of law shall be furnished at the expense and 
be the property of the city or town in which such collector 
holds office, and shall at all reasonable times be open to ex- 
amination by the auditor or auditors of such city or town, or 
any other officers or agents authorized by such city or town to 
make examination thereof. Sts. 1888, ch. 390, §§ 4, 5. 

§ 965. Every collector of taxes who resigns his office, or is 
removed or retired from office, shall within three months after 
sucli resignation, removal, or retirement, deposit all his 
accounts, records, and papers relating to the assessment and 
collection of taxes in the city or town in which he held such 
office, excepting his warrant, with the clerk of such city or 
town. 

§ 966. Every ex-collector of taxes shall, within three 
months after the passage of this act, deposit all the accounts, 
records, and papers which are now in his possession relating 
to the assessment and collection of taxes in the city or town 
in which he held such office, excepting his warrant, with the 
clerk of said city or town. 

§ 967. The executor or administrator of a deceased person 
who at the time of his death or previously thereto was a 
collector of taxes, shall, within three months after his accept- 
ance of the office of administrator, deposit all the accounts, 
records and papers which came into his hands relating to the 
assessment and collection of taxes with the clerk of such city 
or town. 

§ 968. When all the taxes committed to the collector of 
taxes in any city or town have been paid or abated, or in any 
event at the end of three years from the date of the commit- 

22 



338 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

ment to him of said taxes, he shall deposit all the accounts, 
records, and papers relating to such taxes, with . the clerk of 
the city or town in which he holds office. 

§ 969. If the collector of taxes in any city or town has an 
office for the deposit of records and the transaction of the 
business of collector, the accounts, records, and papers 
required to be deposited with the city or town clerk shall be 
deposited with the collector in said office. Sts. 1892, ch. 370, 
§§1-5. 

§ 970. Every collector of taxes shall make return of his 
warrant with his tax-list and of his doings thereon, at such 
time or times as the assessors shall require the same, in 
writing. Sts. 1888, ch. 390, § 6. 

■§ 971. • When a tax is due from any person the collector of 
taxes may, before making a demand for the payment thereof 
as required by law, mail post paid or cause to be delivered a 
summons to such person, stating therein the amount due and 
that unless the same is paid within ten days, with twenty cents 
for the summons, the collector will proceed to collect the same 
according to law. 

§ 972. The collector shall, unless removed from office, as 
hereinafter provided, or unless his tax list has been transferred 
to his successor, as provided by law, complete the collection 
of taxes committed to him, although his term of office expires 
before such completion. He shall be allowed the following 
charges and fees, and no other, which shall be severally added 
to the amount of the tax after they have accrued, to wit : 
For a summons, twenty cents. For arrest by collector or 
other officer, one dollar. For a warrant to distrain or arrest, 
fifty cents. For a copy of warrant and certificate (see § 980 
post), one dollar. For preparing advertisement of sale, 
fifty cents. For advertisement of sale in newspapers, the 
cost thereof. For posting notices of sale (for each piece of 
real estate or lot of goods distrained), fifty cents. For dis- 
training goods, one dollar and the cost thereof. For selling 
goods distrained, the cost thereof. For obtaining affidavit of 
disinterested person one dollar. For recording affidavit, the 
register's fees. For preparing deed, two dollars. Sts. 1890, 
ch. 331, §§ 1, 2. 



COLLECTORS OF TAXES. 339 

§ 973. Collectors shall, before selling the real estate of a 
resident owner, or distraining the goods of any person assessed, 
or arresting him for his tax, make a demand for the payment 
thereof, either by causing to be given, or to be sent postpaid 
through the mail, directed as provided for the direction of 
notices in § 961 ante, to the person assessed for a tax, or if 
the heirs of a deceased person, or a firm, or more than one 
person are assessed, then to one of such heirs, or members of 
a firm, or owners only, a statement of the amount thereof, 
with a demand for its payment. Such demand for the tax on 
real estate shall be given, or be sent directed as hereinbefore 
provided, to the person or one of the persons as aforesaid, if a 
resident of the city or town, or to the person occupying the 
real estate on the first day of May of the year in which the 
tax is assessed ; if a mortgagee of real estate has given a notice 
as is stated in § 995 post such demand shall be given, or be 
sent directed as hereinbefore provided, to the mortgagee 
instead of to the owner or occupant ; if a mortgagee or owner 
of real estate has given an authority to a resident attorney to 
pay the tax with notice thereof, as is stated in § 996 post, the 
demand shall be given, or be sent directed as hereinbefore 
provided, to such attorney instead of to a mortgagee, owner, 
or occupant. No demand need be made of a non-resident 
owner of real estate, nor, except as herein provided, need any 
demand be made of a mortgagee or of an attorney. Sts. 1889, 
ch. 334, § 4. 

§ 974. When the assessors consider that the credit of a 
person taxed is doubtful, or believe that he is about to leave 
the state, they may, by a special warrant, direct the collector 
forthwith, without demand or notice, to compel payment by 
distress or imprisonment, whether the tax is made payable 
immediately, at a future day, by instalments, or otherwise. 

§ 975. If a person claims the benefit of an abatement he 
shall exhibit to the collector demanding his taxes a certificate 
of such abatement from the assessors or other proper officer, 
as provided in chapter six of this book, and he shall be liable 
to pay all costs and officers' fees incurred before exhibiting 
such certificate. Sts. 1888, ch. 390, §§ 9, 10. 

§ 976. If, in the assessors' lists, or in their warrant and 



340 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

list committed to the collector, there is an error in the name 
of a person taxed, the tax assessed to him may be collected of 
the person intended to be taxed, if he is taxable and can be 
identified by the assessors. Sts. 1888, ch. 390, § 11. 

This section applies to those cases where the error in the 
name exists as well in the valuation list as in the assessors 
warrant to the collector ; and it covers all cases of error in 
the name, and seems intended to apply to a case where the 
name is mistaken by omitting, as well as by adding or by 
misnaming. Shaw, C. J., in Tyler v. Hardwick, 6 Met. 474. 

(a) Collection by Distress. 

§ 977. If a person refuses or neglects for fourteen days 
after demand to pay his tax, the collector shall without unne- 
cessary delay levy the same by distress or seizure and sale of 
his goods, including any share or interest he may have as a 
stockholder in a corporation incorporated under authority of 
this Commonwealth, and excepting the following goods : — 

The tools or implements necessary for his trade or occupa- 
tion ; beasts of the plough necessary for the cultivation of his 
improved land ; military arms ; utensils for housekeeping 
necessary for upholding life ; and bedding and apparel neces- 
sary for himself and family. Sts. 1888, ch. 390, § 12. 

But the distress cannot be made after the death of the per- 
son upon whom the tax is assessed. Wilson v. Shearer, 9 
Met. 504. 

§ 978. The collector shall keep the goods distrained, at 
the expense of the owner, for four days at least, and shall, 
within seven days after the seizure, sell the same by public 
auction, for payment of the tax and charges of keeping and 
sale, having given notice of the sale by posting up a notifica- 
tion thereof, in some public place in the -city or town, forty- 
eight hours at least before the sale. Sts. 1888, ch. 390, § 13. 

A sale made after seven days is illegal. JVoyes, Jr.,Y. Haver- 
hill, 11 Cush. 338. 

The notice may be given before the expiration of four days, 
a proper time for sale being fixed upon. The notice need not 
state the name of the person w r hose property is seized, nor the 
amount of the tax, nor describe the property. Barnard v. 
Graves, 13 Met. 94. 



COLLECTORS OF TAXES. 341 

§ 979. The collector may once adjourn such sale for a 
time not exceeding three days : he shall forthwith give notice 
of such adjournment by posting a notification at the place of 
sale. 

§ 980. The seizure of a share or other interest in a corpo- 
ration may be made by leaving with any officer of the cor- 
poration, with whom a copy of a writ may by law be left when 
the share of a stockholder is attached on mesne process, an 
attested copy of the warrant, with a certificate thereon, under 
the hand of the collector, setting forth the tax which the 
stockholder is to pay, and that, upon his neglect or refusal to 
pay, the collector has seized such share or interest. 

§ 981. The sale of such share or interest shall be made in 
the manner prescribed by law for the sale of goods by collec- 
tors of taxes in like cases, and also subject to the provisions 
of sections forty-eight and forty-nine of chapter one hundred 
and seventy-one of the Public Statutes respecting sales on 
executions. Sts. 1888, ch. 390, §§ 14-16. 

§ 982. If the distress or seizure is sold for more than the 
tax and charges of keeping and sale, the collector shall return 
the surplus to the owner, upon demand, with an account in 
writing of the sale and charges. Sts. 1888, ch. 390, § 17. 

A collector is justified in adding to these charges a commis- 
sion or percentage on the amount of the tax for his own 
compensation. Howard v. Proctor, 7 Gray, 132. 

(b) By Imprisonment, 

§ 983. If a person refuses or neglects for fourteen days 
after demand to pay his tax, and the collector cannot find 
sufficient goods upon which it may be levied, he may take the 
body of such person and commit him to prison, there to remain 
until he pays the tax and charges of commitment and impris- 
onment, or is discharged by order of law. Sts. 1888, ch. 
390, § 18. 

This applies to non-residents as well as to residents. Snow 
v. Clark, 9 Gray, 192. 

But the collector lias no right to take the body for non- 
payment of taxes, if sufficient property is shown to him upon 
which to levy, although fourteen days have elapsed since a 
demand of payment. Lothrop v. Ide, 13 Gray, 93. 



342 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

§ 984. When the collector commits a person to prison he 
shall give the keeper thereof a certificate signed by him, set- 
ting forth that he has committed the person for non-payment 
of his tax for fourteen days after demand therefor, and for 
want of goods and chattels whereof to make distress, and also 
setting forth the amount said person is to pay for said tax and 
interest, and charges and fees. Sts. 1889, ch. 334, § 5. 

§ 985. When a person committed to prison for the non- 
payment of taxes desires to take the oath for relief of poor 
debtors, he may represent the same to the jailer ; and the jailer 
shall make the same known to some magistrate named in sec- 
tion twenty-seven of chapter one hundred and sixty-two of the 
Public Statutes ; and the magistrate shall thereupon appoint 
a time and place for the examination of the debtor, and shall 
direct the jailer to cause the debtor to be present at the same. 
The notice required in such case to be given to the creditor may 
be given to either of the assessors, or to the collector by whom 
the party was committed. And the assessors and collector, or 
any of them, may appear and do all things which a creditor 
might do in case of arrest on execution. And if the person 
so committed to prison for the non-payment of taxes is unable 
to pay the same, he shall be entitled to his discharge in like 
manner as persons committed on execution. Sts. 1888, ch. 
390, § 20. 

§ 986. If such person is discharged, the collector shall be 
liable to pay the tax with the charges of imprisonment, unless 
he arrested and committed the party within one year after the 
tax was committed to him to collect, or unless he is exon- 
erated therefrom by the city, town, or parish to which the tax 
is due. Sts. 1888, ch. 390, § 21. 

But this does not render the collector liable to pay for the 
support of the person committed while in jail, although the 
town may have paid it. Townsend v. Walcutt, 3 Met. 152. 

§ 987. A collector, when resisted or impeded in the exer- 
cise of his office, may require any suitable person to aid him 
therein; and if such person refuses to render such aid, he 
shall forfeit a sum not exceeding ten dollars. Sts. 1888, ch. 
390, § 22. 

§ 988. When a tax assessed upon a person remains unpaid 



COLLECTORS OF TAXES. 343 

for fourteen days after demand therefor, the collector may 
issue his warrant to the sheriffs of the several counties, or 
their deputies, or to any constable of, or deputy collector of 
taxes for, the city or town for which he is the collector, direct- 
ing them and each of them to distrain the property or take 
the body of the person assessed for the tax, and to proceed 
therein in like manner as required of collectors in like cases. 
The warrant shall run throughout the state, and any officer to 
whom it is directed may serve it, and apprehend the person in 
any county. Sts. 1889, ch. 334, § 6. 

It would be well that the warrant of the collector authorized 
by this section should recite the facts which are necessary to 
authorize the collector to issue it, because it would then furnish 
the constable with conclusive evidence for his protection in 
acting under it. But the recital is not necessary to the validity 
of the warrant. Cheever v. Merritt, 5 Allen, 565. 

(c) By Suit or Distress. 

§ 989. When a tax assessed, or reassessed, upon a person 
either for real or personal estate, or both, remains unpaid for 
three months after it is committed to the collector, the col- 
lector may, in his own name, sue or otherwise proceed in 
court against the person assessed, to collect the tax, in like 
manner as to collect a debt due him from such person. Sts. 
1889, ch. 334, § 7. 

An action is maintainable by a collector of taxes to recover 
a tax, only part of which is legal, the taxpayer's remedy being 
by an application for an abatement. Pierce v. Eddy, 152 
Mass. 594. 

A collector of taxes cannot maintain a bill in equity in his 
own name under this section to collect a tax, without averring 
that the tax had remained uncollected for three months after 
its committal to him. Richer v. Brooks, 155 Mass. 400. 

§ 990. When a person assessed for a tax dies or becomes 
insolvent before the payment thereof, or when a tax is assessed 
upon the estate of a deceased person, the executor or adminis- 
trator or assignee shall, if a demand has been made upon him 
therefor, forthwith upon his acquiring any moneys applicable 
to the payment of the tax, pay the same, and in default shall 
be liable personally therefor. Sts. 1888, ch. 390, § 25. 



344 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

A tax assessed upon the personalty of a deceased person to 
his executor is the debt of the latter ; and the collector of 
taxes may, under this section, bring an action against him to 
recover it more than two years from the time of giving his 
bond. Bollinger v. Davis, 149 Mass. 62. 

§ 991. Whenever personal property placed in the hands of 
a corporation or an individual as an accumulating fund for 
the future benefit of heirs or 'other persons has been duly 
assessed to such heirs or persons according to the provisions 
stated in clause six, § 673 ante, and the persons so taxed neg- 
lect to pay the tax for one year after it has been committed 
to the collector, the collector may, in- his own name, maintain 
an action of contract therefor against said trustee, in like 
manner as for his own debt ; and the amount thereof paid by 
said trustee may be allowed in his account as such trustee. 

§ 992. When a person is taxed for real estate in his occu- 
pation, but of which he is not the owner, the collector, after 
demand of payment, may levy the tax by distress and sale of 
the cattle, sheep, horses, swine, or other stock or produce of 
such estate, belonging to the owner thereof, which within nine 
months after such assessment is committed to him shall be 
found upon the premises, in the same manner as if such stock 
or produce were the property of the person so taxed ; but such 
demand need not be made if the person on whom the tax is 
assessed resided within the precinct of the collector at the 
time of the assessment, and subsequently removes therefrom 
and remains absent three months. Sts. 1888, ch. 390, §§ 26, 
27. 

(d) By Sale or Taking of Real Estate. 

§ 993. Taxes assessed on real estate, including taxes as- 
sessed according to §§ 668, 669, and 670 ante, shall constitute a 
lien thereon from the first day of May until* the expiration of 
two years from the first day of October of the year in which 
said taxes are assessed. If such tax remains unpaid for four- 
teen days after demand therefor, it may, with all incidental 
charges and fees, be levied by sale of the real estate within 
said two years, or after the expiration of said two years, if the 
estate has not been alienated prior to the giving of the notice 
of such sale. Sts. 1889, ch. 334, § 9. 



COLLECTORS OF TAXES. 345 

A deed of a collector of taxes which does not state that 
fourteen days elapsed after the demand before advertising the 
premises for sale, or that the tax was not paid within fourteen 
days after the demand, is void under this section. Harrington 
v. Worcester, 6 Allen, 576 ; Reed v. Crapo, 127 Mass. 39 ; 
Adams v. Mills, 126 Mass. 278 ; Langdon v. Stewart, 142 
Mass. 576. 

A sale after the first of May for taxes of a previous year, 
does not prevent a subsequent sale for the taxes due as of the 
first of May. O'Day v. Bowher, 143 Mass. 59 ; Keen v. Shee- 
han, 154 Mass. 208. 

A collector's sale of several distinct and separate lots of 
land for one integral price is void. Hay den v. Foster, 13 
Pick, 492 ; Barnes v. Boardman, 149 Mass. 106. 

§ 994. Taxes reassessed on real estate shall constitute a 
lien thereon for the time specified in the preceding section, 
unless the estate has been alienated between the first and 
second assessments ; and may be levied as provided in the 
preceding section. Sts. 1888, ch. 390, § 31. 

An entry upon land by a mortgagee for the purpose of fore- 
closing his mortgage between the date of an assessment of a 
tax upon the land and the date of a reassessment of the same 
tax, the original tax having been assessed to the wrong person, 
is not an alienation of the land between the first and second 
assessments within the meaning of this section. Market 
National Bank v. Belmont, 137 Mass. 407. 

§ 995. If a mortgagee of real estate, situated in the place 
of his residence, previously to the first day of September of 
the year in which the tax is assessed, gives writen notice to 
the collector of such place that he holds a mortgage on real 
estate, with a description of the estate, the demand of payment 
for the tax shall be made of the mortgagee instead of the 
owner. 

§ 996. If a mortgagee or owner of real estate gives a written 
authority to some inhabitant of the place, as his attorney, to 
pay the taxes imposed on such estate, and likewise gives to the 
collector previously to the first day of September of the year 
in which a tax is assessed, written notice that such authority 
has been given, the demand of payment for the tax shall be 



346 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

made of such attorney, instead of the owner, and instead of 
the mortgagee, as provided in the preceding section. Sts. 
1889, ch. 334, §§ 10, 11. 

§ 997. When a demand is made upon the attorney under 
the preceding section, the collector shall not advertise the sale 
of the lands until two months from the time of such demand. 

§ 998. The collector shall give notice of the time and place 
of sale of real estate for payment of taxes, by an advertise- 
ment thereof three weeks successively in some newspaper 
published m the city or town where the premises to be sold 
for taxes are situated, if there is such newspaper, and, if not, 
then in a newspaper printed in the county where the real 
estate lies ; the last publication to be at least one week before 
the time of sale. Sts. 1888, ch. 390, §§ 34, 35. 

§ 999. The advertisement shall contain a substantially 
accurate description of the several rights, lots, or divisions of 
the estate to be sold, the amount of the tax assessed on each, 
the names of all owners known to the collector, and the taxes 
assessed on their respective lands. Sts. 1888, ch. 390, § 36. 

The description should be full and satisfactory, so that the 
owner may know what property is to be sold, and especially if 
the owner's name does not appear in the notice. Farnum v. 
Buffum, 4 Cush. 266. 

And the amount of the tax must be stated exactly. Alex- 
ander v. Pitts, 7 Cush. 503. 

§ 1000. The collector shall, three weeks before the sale, 
post a notice, similar to that required by the two preceding 
sections, on the premises by him advertised to be sold, if any 
part thereof is bounded by a street, lane, court, or highway. 
Sts. 1889, ch. 334, § 12. 

§ 1001. When real estate to be sold under the provisions 
of this chapter is situated in a place the, name of which has 
been changed by law within three years next preceding the 
sale, the collector shall in his advertisement and notices of the 
sale designate such place by its former and present name. 

§ 1002. The affidavit of a disinterested person, or any 
deputy collector, or of the collector who makes the sale of 
land for the payment of taxes, stating the demand of the pay- 
ment of the tax, the person of whom, and the time and manner 



COLLECTORS OF TAXES. 347 

in which it was made, and a like affidavit of the posting and 
publishing of notifications of the sale, with a copy of the 
original advertisement thereto annexed, and filed and recorded 
within three months after the date of sale in the registry of 
deeds of the county or district where the land lies, shall be 
competent evidence of said demand and of the notification. 
Sts. 1888, ch. 390, §§ 38, 39. 

§ 1003. If the taxes are not paid, the collector shall, at 
the time and place appointed for the sale, sell by public auc- 
tion so much of the real estate, or the rents and profits of the 
whole estate for such term of time as shall be sufficient to 
discharge the taxes and necessary intervening charges ; or he 
may at his option sell the whole or any part of the land ; and 
after satisfying the taxes and charges, he shall deposit the 
balance, if any, in the treasury of the city or town, and such 
city or town shall pay such balance to the owner of the estate 
upon demand. The collector may, in his discretion at such 
sale, require an immediate deposit by the purchaser of such 
sum as he shall deem necessary to insure good faith, in part 
payment of the purchase money, which deposit shall not 
exceed the amount of the tax and the costs and charges 
thereon ; and if he fails to make such deposit forthwith, the 
sale shall be void and the estate shall, then and there, be again 
offered for sale. Sts. 1888, ch. 390, § 40. 

This section does not authorize the sale of an individual 
interest in land, and an advertisement of a collector of taxes, 
which offers for sale a certain parcel of real estate, " or such 
undivided portions thereof as may be necessary," invalidates 
a sale thereunder, although in fact the whole parcel is sold. 
Wall v. Wall, 124 Mass. 65 ; Stanford v. Sanford, 135 Mass. 
314. 

§ 1004. The collector may adjourn his sale from day to 
day, not exceeding seven days in the whole ; and he shall give 
notice of every such adjournment by a public declaration 
thereof at the time and place previously appointed for the sale. 
Sts. 1888, ch. 390, § 42. 

§ 1005. The collector shall execute and deliver to the pur- 
chaser a deed of the real estate or rents and profits sold ; 
which deed shall state the cause of sale, the price for which 



348 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

the estate or rents and profits were sold, the name of the 
person on whom the demand for the tax was made, the places 
in the city or town where the notices were posted, the news- 
paper in which the advertisement of the sale was published, 
and the place of residence of the grantee, and a warranty that 
the sale has in all particulars been conducted according to the 
provisions of law ; and, if the real estate has been sold, shall 
convey, subject to the right of redemption, all the right and 
interest which the owner had therein at the time when the 
same was taken for his taxes. Such deed, to be valid, shall 
be recorded within thirty days from the day of sale. Sts. 
1888, ch. 390, § 43. 

The deed of a collector, taking effect only as the execution 
of a statute power, should be construed with some strictness, 
and the description should be such as to enable the grantee to 
identify the land and the owner to redeem it. Hill v. Howry, 
6 Gray, 552. 

The deed must state the cause of sale ; it is a condition 
precedent to the operation of the deed. It is not enough to 
state that a demand for the tax was made upon the person 
taxed, but it must also state that payment was not made 
within fourteen days. Harrington v. Worcester, 6 Allen, 577. 

§ 1006. If it should subsequently appear that, by reason 
of any error, omission, or informality in any of the proceed- 
ings of assessment or sale, the purchaser has no claim upon 
the property sold, there shall be paid to said purchaser, by the 
city or town whose collector executed said deed, upon his sur- 
render and discharge of the deed so given, the amount paid by 
such purchaser, together with interest on the same at the rate 
of ten per cent per annum, which payment shall be in full 
satisfaction of all claims for damages for any defects in the 
proceedings : provided, the said purchaser^ within two years 
from the date of such deed, offers in writing to surrender and 
discharge the same, or to assign and transfer to the city or 
town all his right, title, and interest therein, as the collector 
thereof shall elect, 

§ 1007. Every person acquiring or holding title to real 
estate under a sale for the non-payment of any tax or other 
assessment, who is a resident of the city or town wherein such 



COLLECTORS OF TAXES. 349 

real estate is situated, shall file with the treasurer of the city 
or town, and with the register of deeds of the county wherein 
such real estate is situated, a brief statement showing his 
place of residence and of business, specifying in each case, if 
practicable, the street and the number in the street. Every 
person acquiring or holding title to real estate as above, who 
is not a resident of the city or town wherein such real estate 
is situated, or who removes from such city or town, shall 
appoint and have some suitable agent or attorney residing 
therein, or in the city or town wherein the deed of such real 
estate is recorded, duly authorized to release such real estate 
in accordance with the provisions of law providing for such 
cases, and shall file with the treasurer of such city or town 
and with such register of deeds such original and additional 
statements containing the name of any such agent or attorney, 
and his place of residence and of business, as is herein required 
in the case of resident purchasers or holders ; and whenever 
such person changes his place of residence or business, or his 
attorney, a new certificate as above shall be filed. Sts. 1888, 
ch. 390, §§ 44, 45. 

§ 1008. No city or town and no collector or treasurer of a 
city or town shall, under the provisions stated in § 1006 ante, 
pay or be liable for the amount due upon any deed therein 
referred to, or for any part thereof, unless the offer of the 
holder of such deed contains a specific statement of the reason 
why such holder has no claim on the estate sold, with the 
evidence on which he relies ; and if such evidence is based 
upon any public record, or upon facts shown in any such 
record, the statement above required shall contain a specific 
reference to the particular instrument relied upon. All exist- 
ing deeds may under the provisions of this section be offered 
for surrender and discharge, assignment or transfer, for one 
year from May 19, 1882, but not afterwards. 

§ 1009. If at the time and place of sale no person appears 
and bids for the estate, or for the rents and profits thereof, or 
for the whole or any part of the land, an amount equal to the 
tax and charges, and if the sale has been adjourned from day 
to day, as has been stated in § 1004 ante, a public declaration 
of the fact shall then and there be made by the collector ; 



350 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

immediately after which, if no bid equal to the tax and charges 
is then made, the collector shall give public notice that he 
shall, and that he then and there does, purchase on behalf of 
the city or town by which the tax is assessed the said estate, in 
the manner stated in § 1003 for the sale of property for taxes ; 
but no sum exceeding the amount of the tax and the incidental 
costs and expenses of levy and sale shall be offered by him 
therefor ; and the same shall be allowed him in his settlement 
with such city or town. Sts. 1888, ch. 390, §§ 47, 48. 

§ 1010. If after the sale of real estate for the payment of 
taxes a purchaser thereof fails to pay the collector within 
twenty days the full sum offered by him and to receive his 
deed, the sale shall be null and void, and the city or town 
shall be deemed to be the purchaser of the estate, according 
to the provisions of the preceding section. Sts. 1889, ch. 334, 
§13. 

" The statute does not give the collector any option in the 
matter." Morton, C. J., in Holt v. Weld, 140 Mass. 578. 

§ 1011. When the city or town becomes the purchaser, 
the deed to be given by the collector shall, in addition to the 
statements which are given in § 1005 ante, set forth the fact 
of the non-appearance of a purchaser at the sale advertised by 
him, or of the preceding sale and the failure of the purchaser 
to pay the sum offered, as the case may be, and shall confer 
upon such city or town the same rights as belong to an indi- 
vidual to whom such a deed may be given. Sts. 1888, ch. 390, 
§50. 

§ 1012. Deeds to a city shall be placed in the custody of 
its collector, and to a town shall be placed in the custody of 
its treasurer, and to said collector or treasurer all applications 
for the redemption of the estates described in said deeds shall 
be made. And the several cities and towns may, as holders 
of such estates, exercise the same rights and perform the 
same duties as any individual purchaser of real estate taken 
for taxes, and may make regulations for the custody, manage- 
ment and sale of such estates, and for the assignment of the 
tax titles thus obtained, not inconsistent with law or with the 
right to redeem the same. Sts. 1889, ch. 334, § 14. 

§ 1013. In addition to the power to enforce the lien for a 



COLLECTORS OF TAXES. 351 

tax or assessment on real estate, including taxes assessed 
under §§ 668, 669, and 670 ante, with all incidental costs and 
expenses by sale thereof, the collector shall have power to take 
for the city or town the whole of the real estate taxed or 
assessed, if the tax or assessment is not paid within fourteen 
days after a demand of payment made as is stated in §§ 993, 
995, and 996 ante, and remains unpaid at the date of such 
taking. The collector shall give three weeks' notice of his 
intention to exercise such power of taking ; which notice may 
be served either in the manner prescribed by law for the 
service of summonses for witnesses in civil cases, or by adver- 
tisement thereof in the manner stated in § 998 ante, and shall 
contain the particulars stated in § 999 ante. He may also 
post a similar notice in accordance with the provisions stated 
in § 1000 ante. Sts. 1888, ch. 390, § 52. 

§ 1014. The affidavit of the collector, deputy collector, or 
of a disinterested person, taken before a justice of the peace, 
of the service of the demand of payment, and of the notice, as 
provided in the preceding section, with copies thereof annexed, 
recorded in the registry of deeds of the county or district 
where the land lies, shall be competent evidence of such 
demand and notice. 

§ 1015. Said affidavits shall be annexed to the instrument 
of taking, which shall be under the hand and seal of the col- 
lector, and shall contain a statement of the cause of taking, a 
substantially accurate description of each parcel of land taken, 
the name of the person to whom the same was assessed, and 
the amount of the tax thereon, and of the incidental costs and 
expenses to the date of taking, and shall be recorded in the 
registry of deeds of the county or district where the land lies ; 
and the title to the lands so taken shall thereupon vest in the 
city or town, subject to the right of redemption. Sts. 1892, 
ch. 109, §§ 1, 2. 

§ 1016. Whenever the collector exercises the power of 
taking, above provided, there shall be allowed to him, and 
added to the amount of the tax, the same charges and fees as 
are fixed for similar proceedings by § 972 ante ; and when 
service of the demand of payment and notice of intention to 
take is made in the manner prescribed by law for the service 



352 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

of summonses for witnesses in civil cases, there shall be 
allowed therefor, and added as above mentioned, fifty cents, 
together with the fees of officers for travel fixed by chapter 
one hundred and ninety-nine of the Public Statutes, 

§ 1017. Every sale or taking of real estate for payment of 
taxes shall be deemed to be in the name of the owner or 
owners thereof, if the proceedings of assessment, sale, or 
taking are made in the name of one or more of the persons 
who appear as record owners of such estate at the date of 
assessment ; but any taking of real estate for payment of taxes 
shall be of the whole estate, and no sale or taking shall be of 
the undivided interest of any one or more of the joint owners 
thereof. Sts. 1888, ch. 390, §§ 55, 56. 

§ 1018. Under certain circumstances the collector, or the 
town treasurer may receive tenders of the taxes and charges due 
by an owner of real estate which has been taken or sold for the 
non-payment of taxes. Sts. 1888, ch. 390, §§ 57-59, 65. . 

§ 1019. The respective sums apportioned to, and assessed 
upon, the several cities and towns of the Commonwealth for 
county taxes, shall be collected and paid into their respective 
city and town treasuries, in like manner as the state tax is 
now collected and paid ; and the county commissioners in 
their warrants shall require the selectmen or assessors of such 
cities and towns to pay, or issue severally their warrant or 
warrants requiring the treasurers of their respective cities and 
towns to pay to the treasurers of their several counties the 
sums apportioned to said cities and towns, as aforesaid, at 
such times as shall be fixed and prescribed by said county 
commissioners of the several counties in their said warrants. 
Sts. 1889, ch. 253. 

§ 1020. Any notice, summons, demand, or other paper 
which the collector of taxes is by law required to serve, may 
be served by leaving the same at the last and usual place of 
abode, or of business, of the person assessed, or by sending 
the same through the mail, postpaid and directed to the person 
assessed, at the city or town in which such person was regis- 
tered as a voter for the last preceding state election. The 
affidavit of a collector or deputy collector, kept on file in the 
office of the collector of taxes, that he has served such notice, 



COLLECTORS OF TAXES. 353 

summons, demand, or other paper in the manner described in 
such affidavit, shall be prima facie evidence that it was so 
served. Sts. 1892, eh. 168. 

§ 1021. After proceedings have been commenced for the 
taking or sale of real estate for a tax assessed thereon, and 
before the taking or sale is made, the holder of any mortgage 
thereon may pay such tax with all intervening charges and 
expenses; and when the owner of real estate has neglected, for 
three months after demand, to pay such a tax, and the col- 
lector has made demand therefor upon a holder of a mortgage 
thereon, such holder may in like manner pay such tax, charges, 
and expenses. Sts. 1888, ch. 390, § 60. 

§ 1022. The holder of a mortgage, upon taking possession 
of real estate thereunder, shall be liable to pay all taxes due 
thereon and the expenses of any taking or sale for taxes that 
has been commenced or has taken place ; to be recovered of 
him in an action of contract by the collector, or, when a sale 
has taken place, by the purchaser ; and upon payment or 
tender by the mortgagee to the collector or the purchaser of 
the same sums and within the same time as is provided for 
owners of real estate to make tender, the city or town, or such 
purchaser, shall execute and deliver to him a valid deed of 
assignment of all interest acquired by virtue of the taking or 
sale. Sts. 1888, ch. 390, § 61. 

An action by the collector of taxes of a city or town against 
a mortgagee of land who has entered thereon, and foreclosed 
his mortgage, after the lien stated in § 993 ante has expired, 
for the amount of taxes assessed upon the land to the mort- 
gagor in possession cannot be maintained. Sherwin v. Boston 
Five Cents Savings Bank, 137 Mass. 444. 

§ 1023. For all sums paid to a collector by the holder of a 
mortgage under either of the two preceding sections, the 
collector shall upon demand give him a receipt therefor, duly 
acknowledged ; and such sums shall be added to and consti- 
tute part of the principal sum of the mortgage ; and the 
mortgage shall not be redeemed, without the consent in writ- 
ing of the holder, until such sums and interest thereon are 
paid ; and such receipt recorded, within thirty days from its 
date, in the registry of deeds for the county or district where 

23 



354 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

the land lies, shall be notice to all persons of the payment of 
such sums and of the lien upon the estate therefor. 

§ 1024. If any part of a tax duly assessed upon real 
estate under the statements in §§ 668, 669, and 670 ante 
remains unpaid on the first day of January next after the 
same has been assessed, either party may pay the same ; and, 
if it is paid by a mortgagee, he may take from the collector a 
certificate to be recorded with a note of reference from such 
record to the mortgage deed ; and such sums so paid for taxes 
other than those assessed to himself, with costs and interest, 
shall be added to and constitute a part of the principal sum 
of his mortgage ; and the recording of such certificate within 
thirty days from its date shall be notice to all persons of the 
payment of such sums and of the lien therefor upon the 
estate. When taxes so assessed to a mortgagee have been 
paid by the mortgagor, or by a person claiming under him, 
either to the collector or to a mortgagee who has paid the 
same as provided in this section, the person so paying may 
deduct the sum so paid, with the costs and interest thereon, 
from the amount due to the mortgagee to whom said taxes 
were assessed, unless the parties have otherwise agreed in 
writing. A person whose tax is so paid by another shall have 
the same right to recover it from the city or town, if illegally 
assessed, which he would have had if the tax had been paid 
under a protest by him in writing, 

§ 1025. If an estate is purchased or taken by a city or 
town, according to the provisions of these sections, taxes shall 
be assessed upon the same in the same manner as though the 
same were not so purchased or taken ; and said taxes shall be 
deducted from the proceeds of the final sale. Sts. 1888, ch. 
390, §§ 62-64. 

§ 1026. If no person lawfully entitled redeems, within the 
time prescribed by law, real estate purchased or taken for and 
held by a city or town under the provisions of this chapter, or 
any statute repealed by this statute, its collector of taxes for 
the time being, without any vote or other authority being 
required therefor, shall, within two years thereafter, proceed 
to sell the same by public auction, after having given the notice 
which is stated in § 998 ante ; and if, from any cause, such sale 



COLLECTORS OF TAXES. 355 

shall not be made within two years, as aforesaid, it shall be 
made by the collector at such time as he deems best, or at once, 
upon the service upon him of a written demand of any person 
interested therein. The collector shall state in his notice of 
sale the amount for not less than which the sale will be made, 
and shall, for the city or town, execute and deliver to the 
highest bidder therefor a quit-claim deed. From the money 
arising from said sale shall be deducted the expenses of mak- 
ing the sale, together with the amount named in the collector's 
deed or instrument of taking as the sum due when the same 
was executed, and all interest and charges thereon fixed by 
law, and also all subsequent taxes and assessments, with all 
interest and charges due in respect thereof ; and the balance, 
if any, shall be deposited in the city or town treasury, and 
shall be paid to the party legally entitled to the estate if it had 
not been sold for taxes, if such balance is called for within 
five years ; and if not demanded within that time, the same 
shall inure to the benefit of said city or town. 

§ 1027. If no person bids at such sale for said real estate 
said amount or more, or if the person so bidding and to whom 
the estate is sold fails to pay to the collector within ten days 
the full sum offered by him for the estate, the collector shall 
make an affidavit before a justice of the peace of the non- 
appearance of a purchaser or the failure of such bidder to pay 
the sum offered, and the same shall be recorded in the registry 
of deeds in the county or district where the land lies, within 
thirty days of the date at which the same was offered for sale ; 
such affidavit, or a copy thereof duly certified by the register 
of deeds, shall be prima facie evidence of the facts therein 
stated. 

§ 1028. After the recording of said affidavit, the collector, 
for and in behalf of the city or town, shall, within thirty days 
thereafter, take possession of said real estate, and the city or 
town may make such regulations for the custody, management, 
and sale thereof as it deems best, and taxes shall be assessed 
thereon in the name of such city or town until such land shall 
be sold ; the said affidavit shall be placed in the custody of its 
treasurer, and such subsequent sale and the money received 
therefrom shall be had and held as is stated in § 1026 ante, 
Sts. 1888, ch. 390, §§ 66-68. 



356 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

(e) Proceedings When Tax Title is Deemed Invalid. 

§ 1029. When a collector of taxes has reasonable cause to 
believe that the title created by a deed given in consequence 
of a sale for payment of taxes, or of an assessment a lien for 
which is enforceable by sale of real estate, is invalid by reason 
of an error, omission, or informality in the assessment or sale, 
he may, within two years from the date of said deed, give 
notice to the person appearing of record as owner of the real 
estate, requiring him within thirty days to surrender and dis- 
charge the deed so given, and to receive from the city or town 
the sum due therefor, with interest as provided by law, or to 
file with the collector a written statement that he refuses to 
make such surrender or discharge ; and such statement shall 
be deemed an absolute release of the city or town from any 
liability whatever upon the warranty contained in said deed. 
Sts. 1888, ch. 390, § 69 ; Sts. 1889, ch. 334, § 15. 

§ 1030. The notice required by the preceding section shall 
be served in the manner prescribed by law for the service of 
summonses for witnesses in civil cases ; but in case the holder 
has no place of abode* in the city or town, or cannot be there 
found, it shall be served by mail or by publication one week 
in some newspaper published in the county wherein the city 
or town lies ; or, if there be none such, in some newspaper 
published in an adjacent county. If the holder fails to comply 
with such notice, the collector shall, upon the expiration of 
thirty days from the service thereof, cause a copy of the notice, 
with an affidavit by himself or a disinterested person of the 
service thereof, taken before a justice of the peace, to be filed 
and recorded in the registry of deeds of the county or district 
wherein the city or town lies, A note of reference to the 
record of said copy shall be made on the margin of the record 
of the collector's deed therein referred to ; and from the time 
of such record the interest payable by law in respect to such 
deed shall cease, and said copy when so recorded shall have 
the effect to release and discharge all right and title acquired 
under such deed. The collector shall notify the treasurer of 
the city or town, who shall appropriate out of any funds in 
his hands the amount due in respect of said deed for the use 



COLLECTORS OF TAXES. 35T 

and benefit of the persons entitled thereto, and shall pay it 
over on reasonable demand. 

§ 1031. If the invalidity of a deed so recalled by the col- 
lector arose by reason of any error, omission, or informality 
in the assessment, the collector, after obtaining a surrender 
and discharge of the deed from the holder, or causing a copy 
of the notice to be filed and recorded as provided in the pre- 
ceding section, shall forthwith notify the board by which the 
tax or assessment was laid, who shall immediately reassess the 
same, in the manner stated in § 641 ante. If such invalidity 
arose by reason of an error, omission, or informality in the 
proceedings of the collector, he shall, after obtaining a surren- 
der and discharge of the deed, or causing a copy of the notice 
to be filed and recorded as aforesaid, forthwith collect the 
unpaid tax or assessment referred to in such deed by proceed 
ings in conformity to law. Sts. 1888, ch. 390, §§ 70, 71. 

§ 1032. When the collector has reasonable cause to believe 
that a tax title, held by a city or town under a sale or taking 
for payment of a tax or assessment, is invalid by reason of 
any error, omission, or informality in the assessment, sale, or 
taking, he may release, disclaim, and annul such title by an 
instrument under his hand and seal, duly filed and recorded 
in the registry of deeds of the county or district where the 
land lies. If the invalidity of such title arose by reason of an 
error, omission, or informality in the assessment, the assessors 
shall immediately reassess the same, as is stated in § 641 ante. 
Sts. 1888, ch. 390, § 72 ; Sts. 1889, ch. 334, § 15. 

(f) Miscellaneous Provisions. 
§ 1033, Every city by ordinance, and every town by by-law 9 
may direct which power its collector shall exercise to enforce 
the lien for taxes or assessments laid on real estate, that of 
sale or of taking ; and in the absence of any such ordinance 
or by-law the collector may exercise either power at his dis- 
cretion : and every city and town may in like manner provide 
regulations under which its collector shall exercise the powers 
mentioned in §§ 1029 and 1032 ante; but the passage of any 
such ordinance or by-law shall not render invalid any proceed- 
ings commenced before the passage of the same. Sts. 1888, 
ch. 390, § 77. 



358 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

§ 1034. When the city council of a city or the inhabitants 
of a town vote to appoint their treasurer a collector, he may 
issue his warrants to the sheriff of the county, or his deputy, 
or to any of the constables of the city or town, returnable in 
thirty days, requiring them to collect any or all taxes due ; 
and such warrants shall be in substance the same, and confer 
like powers as warrants issued by assessors to collectors. 

Any officer to whom is given by law authority to collect 
taxes may appoint such deputy collectors of taxes as he may 
from time to time deem expedient, who shall give bonds for 
the faithful discharge of their duties, in such sums as the 
board of selectmen may from time to time prescribe ; and such 
deputies shall have the same powers as collectors of taxes in 
towns. 

§ 1035. The treasurer or other disbursing officer of any 
city or town may, and if so requested by the collector of that 
place shall, withhold payment of any moneys that may be 
made payable from the treasury of that place to any person 
whose taxes, assessed in that place, are then due, and wholly 
or partly unpaid : provided, that no greater sum shall be thus 
withheld than is necessary to pay the amount of tax then due 
as aforesaid, with interest and costs. The sum withheld shall 
be payable to the collector, who shall, if required, give a written 
receipt therefor. The person taxed may, in such case, have 
the same remedy as if he had paid such tax after a levy upon 
his goods. The collector's right as established by this section 
shall be valid against any trustee process not commenced, or 
any assignment not recorded, prior to the seventeenth day of 
May in the year eighteen hundred and seventy-eight. 

§ 1036. Every collector shall once in two months, if re- 
quired, exhibit to the mayor and aldermen or selectmen, a 
true account of all moneys received on the taxes committed 
to him, and shall produce the treasurer's receipts for all 
money paid into the treasury by him. 

§ 1037. If a collector neglects so to exhibit his accounts, 
he shall forfeit two and a half per cent on the sums committed 
to him for collection. 

§ 1038. The collector shall be credited with all sums abated 
according to law; with the amount of taxes assessed upon 



COLLECTORS OF TAXES. 359 

any person committed to prison within one year from the re- 
ceipt of the tax-list by the collector, and before paying his 
tax ; with any sums which the city or town may see fit to 
abate to him, due from persons committed after the expiration 
of a year ; and with the amount of the taxes and charges in 
case of lands purchased or taken by the city or town for pay- 
ment of taxes. 

§ 1039. If the collector fails to collect a tax without his 
own default, and there is a deficiency of the amount due on a 
state or county tax, such deficiency shall be supplied by him 
from the proceeds of the collection of city or town taxes, if 
any, in his hands ; and if he have none, by the city or town 
treasurer, on the written requisition of the collector. 

§ 1040. If a collector of taxes neglects to pay, within the 
time required by law, such sums of money as ought by him to 
be paid to the state or county treasurer, the city or town by 
which such collector was appointed shall be liable for such 
sums, to be recovered in an action of contract by such state 
or county treasurer respectively. 

§ 1041. If a collector neglects seasonably to pay a state or 
county tax committed to him, whereby the city or town is 
compelled to pay the same, or neglects seasonably to account 
for and pay in a city or town tax committed to him, the city 
or town may recover the amount thereof, with all damages 
sustained through such neglect, and interest, by an action 
of contract, declaring on his official bond if any has been 
given. 

§ 1042. If a collector becomes insane, or in the judgment 
of the selectmen otherwise unable to discharge his duty, or 
absconds, removes, or in the judgment of the selectmen is 
about to remove, from the place, or if he refuses on demand 
to exhibit to the mayor and aldermen, selectmen, or assessors 
his accounts of collections as herein provided, the selectmen 
may remove him from office and appoint another collector as 
in case of the death of the collector. 

§ 1043. If a collector dies or is removed as provided in the 
preceding section, before completing the collection of a tax 
committed to him, the selectmen may appoint some suitable 
person to complete the collection, who shall receive a reason- 



360 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

able compensation, to be paid by the town, and they may 
commit the same tax-list to him, with their warrant, accord- 
ingly ; and he shall have the same powers and be subject to the 
same duties and liabilities as other collectors. 

§ 1044. The tax-list of a collector who is paid by a fixed 
salary may, upon the expiration of his term of office, be com- 
mitted to his successor, as in the case of the death of a collec- 
tor, subject to all the provisions of law relating to the transfer 
of a tax-list in case of the death of a collector, as far as appli- 
cable thereto. 

§ 1045. In case of the death or removal from office of a 
collector, his executors or administrators, and all other per- 
sons into whose hands any of his unsettled tax-lists may come, 
shall forthwith deliver the same to the selectmen. 

§ 1046. Collectors shall be paid such compensation for their 
services as their cities or towns shall determine. In towns 
they shall be elected by ballot, and their compensation shall 
be fixed by the towns at the annual meeting, or at a special 
meeting called for that purpose. 

§ 1047. No tax paid to a collector shall be recovered back, 
unless it appears that it was paid after an arrest of the person 
paying it, a levy upon his goods, a notice of sale of his real 
estate, or a protest by him in writing ; and the damages 
awarded in a suit or process based upon any error or illegality 
in the assessment or apportionment of a tax shall not be 
greater than the excess of the tax above the amount for which 
the plaintiff was liable to be taxed. And no sale, contract, or 
levy shall be avoided by reason of any such error or irregu- 
larity. Sts. 1888, ch. 390, §§ 80-93. 

§ 1048. The following forms may be used in proceedings 
for the collection of taxes under this chapter, and, if substan- 
tially followed, they shall be deemed sufficient for the proceed- 
ings to which they respectively relate ; but this shall not be 
so construed as to prohibit the use of other suitable forms. 
These forms may also be used, so far as applicable, in the 
collection of betterments and other assessments of like char- 
acter. Sts. 1888, ch. 390, § 96. 



COLLECTORS OF TAXES. 361 

Bond to be given by Collector of Town. 

BOND. 

Know all men by these presents, 

That we, A B, of B d, in the county of E and Common- 
wealth of Massachusetts, as principal, and C D and E F, of said 

B d, as sureties, are holden and stand firmly bound and obliged 

unto the said town of B d in the full and just sum of 

dollars, to be paid unto the said town ; to which payment well and 
truly to be made, we bind ourselves, our heirs, executors, and admin- 
istrators, firmly by these presents. 

Sealed with our seals. Dated the da} 7 of in the year of 

our Lord one thousand eight hundred and 

The condition of this obligation is such, That whereas said A B 

has been chosen collector of taxes for said town of B d for the 

current year, and has accepted said office, and been duly sworn to 
the faithful discharge of the duties thereof, Now, if the said A B 
shall, as collector as aforesaid, faithfully collect, account for, and pay 
over all the taxes which he shall be legally required to collect, and 
also faithfully discharge all other legal duties of said office, then 
this obligation shall be void ; otherwise to remain in full force and 
virtue. 

A B. SEAL. 

C D. 



EF. 



Signed, sealed, and delivered m presence of 



SCHEDULE OF FORMS. 
No. 1. — Form of Dkmand Under § 973. 

Collector's Office, B, , 18 . 

To 
Herewith find your tax-bill due 18 , amounting to $ 

Payment of the same is hereby demanded. (If interest has been 
voted by the city or town add) Interest at the rate of per cent 
per annum will be charged from 18 . You are hereby notified 
that unless your tax is paid in fourteen days from this date, with all 
legal charges, the collector will then proceed to collect the same 
according to law. C D, 

Collector of Taxes for the of 



362 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

No. 2. — Form of Notice of Sale of Distrained Property 
under § 978. 

Collector's Sale. 
Distrained upon a warrant of distress for non-payment of taxes, 
and will be sold at public auction on , the day 

of ,18 , at o'clock m., at , unless said taxes 

shall be paid before the sale, the following described property, to 
wit: (Here describe the property.) 

B, , 18 . CD, 

Collector of Taxes for the of 

No. 3. — Form of Notice of Adjournment of Sale under 

§ 979. 
To the original notice of sale or a copy thereof, add the follow- 
ing, and post at the place of sale : — 

The collector hereby gives notice that the above sale stands 
adjourned to , the day of , 18 , at the same 

hour and place. 

B, , 18 . CD, 

Collector of Taxes for the of 

No. 4. — Form of Certificate to be Made upon an Attested 
Copy of Warrant when Corporate Stock is Seized under 
§ 980. 

Collectors Office, B, , 18 . 

I hereby give notice that I have seized share of the 

capital stock of the (A B Company) standing in the name of 
by virtue of a warrant of distress, a copy of which is hereby pre- 
sented. Said share being seized and distrained for the non-pa} r - 
ment of a tax duly assessed upon the said by the Assessors of 

for the year 18 , amounting to the sum of , which the 
said after due demand has neglected and refused to pay. 

CD, 
Collector of Taxes for the of 

No. 5. — Form of Certificate Required by § 984 to be given 
by a Collector when a Commitment is made by him. 

,18 . 
I hereby certify that the tax assessed in the of 

as of the first day of May in the year upon remains 



COLLECTORS OF TAXES. 363 

unpaid for fourteen days after demand therefor made by me ; and 
that for want of goods and chattels whereof to make distress, I 
commit the said person to prison. 

I also certify that the amount the said person is to pay for said 
tax and interest, and charges and fees, is dollars. 

C D, Collector of Taxes for the of 

No. 6. — Form of Collector's Warrant to Distrain or Commit 

under § 988. 

Commonwealth of Massachusetts. 

To the Sheriffs of our several Counties, or their Deputies, or to 

any Constable of or Deputy Collector of Taxes for the 

of in the County of , 

Greeting : 

Whereas, a resident of in the Count}' of 

was duly assessed as of the first day of May in the year eighteen 
hundred and , by the Assessors of the of 

a tax in the sum of dollars ; and the same now, after the 

expiration of fourteen da}'s from the date of a demand made upon 
him b}' me in accordance with law for the payment of the same, 
remains unpaid ; Therefore, 

In the name of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, 3*ou and 
each of you are required and directed to distrain the goods or 
chattels of the said person so assessed sufficient to satisfy and pay 
the amount due for such tax and interest, and all fees and charges 
of keeping and selling the same, saving and excepting the tools or 
implements necessary for the trade or occupation of the said person 
so assessed, beasts of the plow necessary for the cultivation of his 
improved land ; militaiy arms ; utensils for housekeeping necessary 
for upholding life ; and bedding and apparel necessaiy for the said 
person so assessed and his family. And the goods and chattels so 
distrained by you, you are required to keep at the cost and charge 
of the owner, and within seven days after the seizure to sell the 
same at public auction, for the payment of the said amount due ; 
having first posted up a notice of the sale in some public place in 
the town or city where found, forty-eight hours at least before the 
sale : provided, however, that you ma}% if } T ou shall see fit, once 
adjourn said sale for a time not exceeding three days, in which case 
you shall forthwith post up a notice of such adjournment and of the 
time and place of sale. And if said distress shall be sold for more 
than the said amount due, you shall return the surplus to the owner 



864 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

of such goods or chattels upon demand, with an account in writing 
of the sale and charges. And if you cannot find sufficient goods 
and chattels belonging to the person assessed, whereon to make 
distress, you shall take the bod}' of the said person and him commit 
to one of the common jails in the county in which you shall arrest 
him, there to remain until he shall pa}' said tax, and interest, and 
charges, and fees, or until he shall be discharged therefrom by due 
course of law. 

And in case you shall commit said person so assessed to prison 
by virtue of this Warrant, }*ou are required to give the keeper of 
the prison wherein he may be committed an attested copy of this 
Warrant, with a certificate thereon under your hand, setting forth 
that for want of goods and chattels of the said person whereof to 
make distress, you have taken his body and committed him to 
prison as aforesaid ; and also setting forth the amount said person 
is to pay as his tax and interest, and fees and charges. 

Hereof fail not, and make return of this Warrant, with your 
doings thereon, within sixty days from the date hereof. 

Given under my hand and seal this daj- of 18 . 

C D, [seal.] 

Collector of Taxes for the of 

No. 7. — Form of Certificate required by § 988 to be endorsed 
on Copy of Warrant in Case of Commitment. 

,18 . 
I hereby certify that, by virtue of the warrant of which the within 
is a true copy, for want of goods and chattels whereof to make dis- 
tress, I have taken the body of the within named and 
committed him to prison, and that the amount which he is to pa} T as 
his tax and interest, and fees and charges is dollars. 

Deputy Collector of Taxes for the of 

No. 8. — Form of Demand of Tax on Real Estate under § 993. 

Collector's Office, C, , 18 . 

To 

In compliance with the statute I herelry demand of you the paj'- 
ment of dollars, that being the amount of tax assessed for the 
year 18 on the estate in this city or town (here give a brief 
statement of the estate) and owned (or occupied) by you at the 
date of the assessment. You are hereby notified that if said amount, 
together with the legal costs and charges thereon, is not paid within 



COLLECTORS OF TAXES. 365 

fourteen days from this date, the said estate will be sold by public 
auction, pursuant to law. C D, 

Collector of Taxes for the of 

N. B. When the demand is made upon an attorney, this form 
should be changed accordingly. 

No. 9. — Form of Collector's Notice of Sale of Real Estate 
to be Published in a Newspaper under §§ 998 and 999. 

Collector's Notice. 

B, , 18 . 

The owners and occupants of the following described parcels of 

real estate situated in the (city or town) of , in the county of 

, and Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and the public are 

hereb} T notified that the taxes thereon severally assessed for the 

years hereinafter specified, according to the list committed to me as 

Collector of Taxes for said by the Assessors of Taxes, remain 

unpaid, and that said parcels of real estate will be offered for sale 

by public action at the in said on ,18 , at o'clock 

m., for the pa\'ment of said taxes with costs and charges thereon, 

unless the same shall be previously discharged. (Here state the name 

of the party taxed if known ; a substantially accurate description 

of the estate ; the year in which the tax is assessed ; and the 

amount of the tax on each parcel of real estate.) C D, 

Collector of Taxes for the of 

No. 10. — (Under § 1000, Use Form No. 9 for Notice to be 
Posted on the Premises, with the words, " This Estate to 
be sold for unpaid taxes," written or printed at the top 
of the Notice.) 

No. 11. — Form of" Affidavit of Disinterested Person, Deputy 
Collector, or Collector, of Demand under § 1002 to be 
Recorded in the Registry of Deeds. 

S, ,18 , 

I (A B, a disinterested person, or a deput}^ collector, or collec- 
tor) hereb}* certify that on the day of , 18 , I served upon 
E F a demand for the payment of a tax of dollars assessed 
upon him by the assessors of , in 18 , upon the estate in 

said (Here give a substantially accurate description of the estate) 
with a notice that if said amount, together with the legal costs (and 



366 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

interest) thereon was not paid within fourteen days from the date 
thereof that the said estate would be sold by public auction accord- 
ing to law. A B. 

Commonwealth of Massachusetts. 
H , ss. 18 . 

Then personally appeared the said A B, and made oath that this 
statement by him subscribed is true. 

Before me, 

Justice of the Peace. 

No. 12. — Form of Affidavit under § 1002, when the Demand 
is made upon Two or More Distinct Persons. 

S, , 18 . 

I (A B, a disinterested person, or a deputy collector, or collector) 
hereby certify that on or since the day of ,18 ,1 have 
served on each of the parties hereinafter mentioned, on the date and 
in the manner specified, as may be seen by reference to their respec- 
tive names, a demand like the blank hereunto attached, the blanks 
being first filled with the date, name, amount of the tax, and loca- 
tion of the real estate. A B. 



Names. 



Amount of Tax. 



Manner and Date of Service. 



Commonwealth of Massachusetts. 
H , ss. S, , 18 . 

Then personally appeared the said A B, and made oath that the 
above statement subscribed by him is true. 

Before me, 

Justice of the Peace. 
(Here annex the blank form, No. 8, referred to in the affidavit) 

No. 13. — Form of Affidavit of Posting and Publishing Adver- 
tisement of Sale under § 1002. 

S, , 18 . 

I, A B of , in the County of , and Commonwealth of 
Massachusetts (a disinterested person, or a deputy collector, or col- 
lector), hereby certify that I witnessed the posting (or posted) on 
the premises named therein the printed notice hereto annexed of 



COLLECTORS OF TAXES. 367 

the Collector of Taxes of the (town or city) of for the sale of real 
estate (or of the various parcels of real estate) situate in said , 
for non-pa} T ment of taxes, as specified in said notice hereto annexed, 
also in a convenient and public place, to wit : the , in said 

(town or cit} T ), and that said notice was advertised three weeks 
successively in the , a newspaper published in (city or town) 
(or if there is no such newspaper, state that fact and add : in said 
County), the last publication being at least one week before the 
advertised time of sale ; and that said posting was done three weeks 
before the time of sale, in accordance with law. A B. 

Commonwealth of Massachusetts. 
H , ss. S, , 18 . 

Then personally appeared the above-named , and made 

oath that the foregoing statements by him subscribed are true. 

Before me, 

Justice of the Peace. 
(Here annex a copy of the advertisement.) 

No. 14. — Form of Deed under Sections 1005 and 1006. 

Commonwealth of Massachusetts. 

To all Persons to whom these Presents ma} r come, 
I, , Collector of Taxes for the of 

in the County of , and Commonwealth of Massachusetts, 

Send Greeting : 

Whereas, the Assessors of Taxes of said of , 

in the lists of assessments for taxes, which they committed to me 
to collect for the year one thousand eight hundred and , 

duly assessed , as owner of the real estate in 

said , which is hereinafter described, the sum of dol- 

lars and cents for State, (Cny or Town), and County Taxes 

thereon ; and whereas, on the da}' of , a. d. 18 , 

I duly demanded of said (if the demand was made on a mortgagee 
or an attorney of a non-resident owner, here insert the fact) 
the payment of said taxes, so as aforesaid assessed on said real 
estate, and the same were not paid ; and whereas, after the expira- 
tion of fourteen days from the time of demanding payment of said 
taxes as aforesaid, the same still remaining unpaid, I duly adver- 
tised said real estate to be sold by public auction for the payment 
of said taxes, and all incidental costs and expenses, on the , a. 
d. 18 , at o'clock in the , at the , in said 



368 ' THE TOWN OFFICER. • 

, by publishing an advertisement thereof, containing also a 
substantially accurate description, and the name of the owner of 
said real estate, and the amount of the taxes so as aforesaid assessed 
thereon, in the , a newspaper published in , in the county 

where said real estate lies, three weeks successively, the last 
publication whereof was one week before the time appointed for 
the sale, and by posting the said advertisement in public and 

convenient place in said , to wit : the , and also on said 

real estate, three weeks before the time appointed for said sale ; 
and whereas, said taxes so as aforesaid assessed on said real estate 
not being paid, I proceeded at the time and place appointed as 
aforesaid for the sale, to sell said real estate by public auction for 
the discharging and payment of said taxes thereon, and said inci- 
dental costs and expenses*, (If the sale is adjourned add here) 
and no person appeared and bid for the estate thus offered for sale 
an amount equal to the said taxes and costs and expenses, and I 
thereupon, at said time and place appointed for sale, adjourned 
said sale until the day of , a. d. 18 , at 

o'clock in the forenoon at the same place, and then and there made 
public proclamation of said adjournment ; and in like manner in all 
respects, I adjourned said sale from time to time, to the same hour 
and place, and then and there made public proclamation of said 
adjournments ; and at the time so fixed and proclaimed for making 
said sale on each of the several days, at the said hour and place, I 
proceeded to offer for sale said real estate b} T public auction for the 
payment of said taxes, costs, and expenses and no person appeared 
at either time so fixed b} T adjournment for said sale and bid a sum 
equal to said taxes, costs, and expenses, until on , the day of 

,18 ; and at the said time and place so fixed for said sale 
b} T the last of the said adjournments, namely, on the da)' of 

, a. d. 18 (Use such of these averments as will conform 
to the facts), I proceeded again to offer for sale by public auc- 
tion said real estate for the pa}*ment of said taxes and costs 
and expenses, and the said real estate was struck off to 
of , in the count}' of , and State of , for the 

sum of dollars and cents, he being the highest bidder 

therefor ; 

Therefore know ye that I, the said , Collector of Taxes as 

aforesaid, by virtue of the power vested in me by law, and in con- 
sideration of the said sum of dollars and cents to me 
paid by said , the receipt whereof I do hereby acknowledge, do 
hereby give, grant, bargain, sell, and convey unto the said 



COLLECTORS OP TAXES. 369 

the following described real estate, the same being the land taxed 
as aforesaid, to wit : (Here describe the estate.) 

To have and to hold the same, to the said heirs and as- 

signs, to their use and behoof forever ; subject to the right of 

redemption by any person legalty entitled to redeem the same. 

And I, the said Collector, do covenant with the said heirs and 
assigns that the sale aforesaid has, in all particulars, been conducted 
according to the provisions of law.f 

In witness whereof I, the said , Collector as aforesaid, have 

hereunto set my hand and seal, this day of , in the 

year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and 

[seal]. 
Collector of Taxes for the of 
Signed, sealed and delivered in presence of 

ss. , 18 . 

Then personally appeared the above-named , Collector of 

Taxes for the of , and acknowledged the fore- 

going instrument to be his free act and deed. 

Before me, 

Justice of the Peace. 

No. 15. — Form of Deed when the City or Town is the Pur- 
chaser UNDER §§ 1009 AND 1011. 

Commonwealth of Massachusetts. 

(Proceed as in No. 14 to the.* and continue as follows : — ) and 
no person appeared and bid for the estate thus offered for sale an 
amount equal to the said taxes and costs and expenses, and I 
thereupon, at said time and place appointed for sale, adjourned said 
sale until the day of a. d. 18 , at o'clock in the 

forenoon, at the same place, and then and there made public pro- 
clamation of said adjournment ; and in like manner in all respects, 
I adjourned said sale from time to time, to the same hour and 
place, and then and there made public proclamation of said adjourn- 
ments ; and at the time and place so fixed and proclaimed for mak- 
ing said sale on each of said several days, I proceeded to offer 
for sale said real estate b}' public auction for the payment of said 
taxes, costs, and expenses, and no person appeared at either time 
so fixed by adjournment for said sale and bid a sum equal to said 
taxes, costs, and expenses, and at the time and place so fixed for 
said sale b} r the last of said adjournments, namely, on the 
clay of , a. d. 18 , at o'clock in the forenoon, I made 

24 



370 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

a public declaration of all the facts hereinbefore recited ; and no 
person then appeared and bid a sum equal to said taxes, costs, and 
expenses (if only one adjournment is made, change these averments 
to conform to the facts) ; and I thereupon then and there immedi- 
ately gave public notice that I should, and that I then and there did 
purchase on behalf of the said of , said real estate for 

the sum of dollars and cents, being the amount of said 

taxes and said incidental costs and expenses ; 

Therefore know ye that I, the said , Collector of Taxes as 
aforesaid, b} 7 virtue of the power vested in me by law, and in con- 
sideration of the premises, hereby give, grant, bargain, sell, and 
convey unto the said of , the following described real 

estate, the same being the land taxed as aforesaid, to wit : (Here 
describe the estate.) 

To have and to hold the same, to the said of , and its 

assigns, to its and their use and behoof forever ; subject to the right 
of redemption by any person legally entitled to redeem the same. 

And I, the said Collector, do covenant with the said of 

, and its assigns, that the sale aforesaid has, in all par- 
ticulars, been conducted according to the provisions of law. (Con- 
clude as in No. 14 from the f .) 

No. 16. — Form of Deed to City or Town, when the Purchaser 
Fails to Pay, etc., under §§ 1010 and 1011. 

(Proceed as in No. 14 to the * and continue as follows : — ) and the 
said real estate was struck off to of in the County of 

and State of , for the sum of dollars and 

cents, he being the highest bidder therefor ; and whereas, the said 

failed to pay to me the sum offered by him as aforesaid, and 
receive his deed of the premises bid off by him within ten daj^s 
after the said sale, and the said sale became null and void, and the 
said of thereby became the purchaser of the premises 

so bid off by the said for the sum of dollars and 

cents, being the amount of said taxes and incidental costs and 
expenses ; 

Therefore know ye that I, the said , Collector of Taxes as 

aforesaid, by virtue of the power vested in me by law, and in con- 
sideration of the premises, hereby give, grant, bargain, sell, and 
convey unto the said of the following described real estate, 

the same being the land taxed as aforesaid, to wit : [Here describe 
the estate.] 



COLLECTORS OF TAXES. 371 

To have and to hold the same, to the said of . and 

its assigns, to its and their use and behoof forever ; subject to the 
right of redemption by any person legally entitled to redeem the 
same. 

And I, the said Collector, do covenant with the said of 

, and its assigns, that the sale aforesaid has, in all particu- 
lars been conducted according to the provisions of law. (Conclude 
as in No. 14 from the f.) 

No. 17. — Form of Notice of Intention to take Real Estate 
under § 1013. 

Collector's Notice. 

The owners and occupants of the following-described (parcels) of 
real estate situate in the of , in the County of , 

and Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and all other persons, are 
hereby notified that the (taxes) thereon (severally) assessed for 
the } T ear hereinafter specified, according to the list committed to 
me as Collector of Taxes for the said of , by the 

Assessors of Taxes of said , remain unpaid, and that the said 

(parcels) of real estate will be taken for the said of , on 

the da} T of a. d. 18 , at o'clock m., 

for the pa3 T ment of said taxes, together with the costs and charges 
thereon, unless the same shall be previously discharged. (Here 
state the name of owner or occupant, a description of the parcel or 
parcels of lands, the year for which the taxes were assessed, and 
the sum assessed upon each parcel.) 

CD, 
Collector of Taxes for the of 

No. 18. — Form of Affidavit of Demand and Notice to be 
annexed to the Instrument of Taking under § 1014. 

I, CD, of , in the County of , and Common- 

wealth of Massachusetts, on oath depose and sa} T that on the 
day of , a. d. 18 , I, as Collector of Taxes for the 

of , made a written demand on for the amount of the 

tax assessed by the assessors of said of , as of the 

first day of Ma}' a. d. 18 , upon the said , with the costs 

then due on certain real estate situated in said of , 

by (Here state manner in which the demand was made), of which 
the following is a true copy : — 



372 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

" Collector's Office, , 18 . 

To , I hereby demand of you the payment of dollars 

and cents, that being the amount of tax assessed for the year 

18 , b} 7 the assessors of , on the real estate (Here describe 

the estate) owned by you. You are hereby notified that if said 
amount, together with the costs thereon, is not paid within fourteen 
days from this date, the said real estate will be taken for said taxes 
for the said of . Tax, $ ; costs and charges, $ 

CD, 
Collector of Taxes for the of ." 

(If notice is published and posted, add :) And I, the said C D, do 
further depose and sa} 7 that I posted and published notices, of 
which the following is a copy (Here annex a copy of the notice), 
as follows : A copy thereof was posted on (Here state where posted), 
and I also published a cop} 7 of said notice in the , a news- 

paper published in said (If there be no paper published in said 

town, state the fact and add, tk in in said county ") three 

weeks successively, that the posting of said notices and the first 
publication thereof was more than fourteen da} T s after the making 
the demand as aforesaid ; and I do further depose and say that, at 
the date of the instrument of taking, hereto annexed, the amount 
of taxes due on the estate therein described, with the costs and 
expenses, amounted to the sum of dollars and cents, and 

that the (parcel or parcels) or (lot or lots) of land were taken for 
the reason that the taxes remained unpaid at the time of the said 
taking. 

CD, 
Collector of Taxes for the of 

B , ss. 18 . 

Then personally appeared the above named C D, and made oath 
that the foregoing affidavit by him subscribed is true. 

Before me, Justice of the Peace. 

No. 19. — Form of Taking of Real Estate under § 1015. 

Whereas, the tax assessed b} T the Assessors of as of the first 
day of May, in the j^ear 18, upon E F as the owner (or occupant) 
of the real estate hereinafter described, was duly committed to me 
as Collector of Taxes for said of ; and whereas the 

said taxes, amounting to dollars and cents, have not 

been paid ; and whereas, a demand for the payment of said taxes 
and the costs and expenses then due, was made by me on the said 
E F on the day of , last past, in conformity to law ; 



COLLECTORS OP TAXES. S73 

and whereas, notice of my intention to take said real estate by 
virtue of the authority vested in rue as Collector of Taxes for said 
has been duly made as by law required ; and whereas, the 
said taxes at the date of this instrument remain unpaid ; now 
therefore, know all men by these presents, that I, C D, as Collector 
of Taxes as aforesaid, b\ T virtue of the power and authority in me 
vested as aforesaid, have taken and by these presents do take, for 
the said of , subject to redemption according to law, 

the following described lot or parcel of land, with the buildings 
thereon, the same being the estate assessed as aforesaid, to wit : 
(Here describe the estate.) The said E F is the only person known 
to me as owner of the above described estate. 

In witness whereof, I, the said C D, as Collector aforesaid, here- 
unto set my hand and seal this day of , in the year 
eighteen hundred and 

C D, [seal.] 

Collector of Taxes for the of 

No. 20. — Form of Deed by City or Town when Estate is 
Redeemed under § 1018 to be Executed by the Proper 
Officers of the City or Town. 

Know all men by these presents, 

That the of , in consideration of , to it paid by 

of , the receipt of which is hereby acknowledged, 

does hereby remise, release, and forever quit-claim unto the said 
all the right, title, and interest which the said of 

acquired, by or under a deed made to it by , Col- 

lector of Taxes for said (City or Town), dated the day of 

in the } T ear of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and , 

and recorded with Deeds, Lib. Fol. in and to the fol- 

lowing parcel of real estate in said , viz : (Here describe the 

estate.) 

To have and to hold the above released premises, with all the 
privileges and appurtenances to the same belonging, to the said 
, heirs and assigns, to use and behoof forever. 

In witness whereof, the said of has caused its cor- 

porate seal to be hereunto affixed, and these presents to be signed, 
acknowledged, and delivered in its name and behalf by , its 

, hereto duly authorized, this day of , in the 

3'ear of our Lord eighteen hundred and 

Town (or Citj-) of [seal.] 

Signed and sealed in presence of 

By 



374 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

No. 21. — Form of Receipt by Collector to a Mortgagee, 
under Section 1021. 

Collector's Office 18 . 

I, , Collector of Taxes for the of , hereby certify 

that the Assessors of Taxes of said of , in the list of 

assessments for taxes which they committed to me to collect for the 
year one thousand eight hundred and , duly assessed 

the sum of dollars and cents, as owner of the real 

estate situated as follows, viz : 

and I further certify that the said 
neglected to pay such tax for three months after demand, 
and I thereupon made a demand therefor upon who claimed 

to be the holder of a mortgage upon said real estate ; and 

that the said has paid to me the sum of dollars and 

cents, being the amount of said tax, with all intervening 
charges and expenses, the receipt of which I hereby acknowledge. 

CD, 
Collector of Taxes for the of 

S , ss. 18 . 

Then personally appeared the above named , Collector 

of the of , and made oath to the statement by him 

subscribed. 

Before me, 

Justice of the Peace. 

No. 22. — Form of Receipt by Collector under §§ 1022 
and 1023. 

Collector's Office 18 . 

I, , Collector of Taxes for the of , hereby 

certify that the Assessors of Taxes of said of , in 

the list of assessments for taxes which they committed to me to 
collect for the year one thousand eight hundred and , duly 

assessed the sum of dollars and cents, as owner of 

the real estate situated as follows, viz : 

and I further certify that proceedings have been commenced by 
me for the sale of said real estate for said tax, and that 
who claimed to be the holder of a mortgage thereon, has paid to me 
the sum of dollars and cents, being the amount of said 

tax, with all intervening charges and expenses, the receipt of which 
I hereby acknowledge, said receipt having been demanded by said 
mortgagee. C D, 

Collector of Taxes for the of 



COLLECTORS OF TAXES. 375 

S , ss. 18 . 

Then personalty appeared the above-named , Collector of 

Taxes for the of , and made oath to the statement by 

him subscribed. 

Before me, 

Justice of the Peace. 

No. 23. — Form of Notice of Sale of Unredeemed Real Estate, 
in behalf of a City or Town, within Two Years after Expi- 
ration of the Right of Redemption, under § 1026. 

Sale of Unredeemed Heal Estate by the of 

Collector's office, B, 18 . 

In conformity with the laws of the Commonwealth of Massa- 
chusetts, the public and all persons interested as former owners and 
occupants of each of the following described parcels of real estate 
situated in the of , in the Count}' of and 

Commonwealth aforesaid, are hereby notified that said parcels have 
been conveyed according to law to said (Town or City) for non- 
payment of taxes and assessments ; and the time within which each 
of the estates might be redeemed by the owners thereof having 
expired, each of said parcels will be offered for sale in accordance 
with § 66 of chapter 390, of the Acts of the year eighteen hundred 
and eighty-eight, by public auction at the in said B 

on the day of . a. d. 18 , at o'clock m., 

and to the highest bidder for each of the several parcels a quit-claim 
deed will be delivered. For further particulars reference is made to 
the Registry of Deeds of the Count}' of , the volume and 

folio numbers following the description of each parcel indicating 
the record of the deed under which the said of now 

holds title to the estate described. The sums set against the sev- 
eral estates show the amounts due thereon respectively for the taxes 
and assessments for the non-payment of which said estate 

was sold to (or taken by) the said , together with the subse- 

quent taxes and assessments, interest on the same, and all lawful 
costs and charges. And none of the said estates will be sold for 
less than the amount set against the said estates, respectively. 
(Here set out the name of the original owner or occupant if known, 
a description of each parcel, the place of registry, vol. and folio, 
the years in which assessed, and the amount for not less than which 
the sale will be made.) 

C D, Collector of Taxes for the of 



376 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

No. 24. — Form op Deed of Unredeemed Tax Title under 

§ 1026. 

Know all men by these presents, 

That, whereas the real estate hereinafter described was by deed 
of Collector, dated a. d. 18 , and recorded with 

Deeds, Lib. Fol. duly conveyed to the 

of , a municipal corporation legally established in 

the County of , and Commonwealth of Massachusetts, for 

the non-payment of taxes ; and whereas no person lawfully entitled 
has, within the time prescribed by law, redeemed said real estate ; 
and whereas I, the Collector of Taxes of the said of , 

acting under the provisions of chapter 390 of the Acts of the year 
eighteen hundred and eighty-eight, duly advertised said real estate 
to be sold by public auction on the day of , 18 , at 

o'clock in the forenoon, at the in said of , 

by publishing an advertisement thereof, containing a substantially 
accurate description of said real estate in the , a newspaper 

published in , three weeks successively, the last publication 

whereof was at least one week before the time appointed for the 
sale, and by posting a like advertisement in public and con- 

venient place in said, of to wit : the in said 

city or town, and also on said real estate, three weeks before the 
time appointed for said sale ; and whereas the amounts due on said 
estate not being paid, the of by the Collector, 

, thereto duly authorized by statute, proceeded at the time 
and place appointed as aforesaid for the sale, to sell real estate by 
public auction, and the said real estate was then and there struck 
off to , of in the County of , and State of 

, for the sum of dollars and cents, he being the 

highest bidder therefor ; 

Now, therefore, the of , by its Collector of Taxes, 

by virtue of the statutes in such case made and provided, and every 
other power hereto it enabling, in consideration of dollars 

and cents paid by said , the receipt whereof is hereby 

acknowledged, does herebj^ remise, release, and forever quit-claim 
unto the said , heirs and assigns, all the right title and 

interest which the said of acquired, bj 7 or under the 

deed above mentioned, in and to the following parcel of real estate 
in said , viz : (Here describe the estate.) 

To have and hold the above released premises, with all the privi- 
leges and appurtenances thereto belonging, to the said , his 
heirs and assigns, to his and their behoof forever. 



COLLECTORS OF TAXES. 377 

In witness whereof the said of has caused its seal 

to be hereto affixed and these presents to be signed, acknowledged, 
and delivered in its name and behalf by its Collector of Taxes 
hereto duly authorized by law, this daj T of , in the 

year eighteen hundred and 

Town (or City) of , [seal.] 

By C D, 
Collector of Taxes for the of 
(To be acknowledged by the Collector as the free act and deed of 
the City or Town.) 

No. 25. — Form of Affidavit of Collector of the Non- 
appearance of a Purchaser, or the Failure of Bidder to 
Pay the Sum Bid, under § 1027. 

I, C D, Collector of Taxes for the of , in the County 

of , and Commonwealth of Massachusetts, on oath depose 

and sa} T that the advertisement of the sale of unredeemed real 
estate, a copy of which is hereto annexed, was published and 
posted according to the requirements of law, and that at the time 
and place of sale as stated in the same (no person appeared and 
bid for the real estate advertised in said advertisement against the 
name of , the sum or amount therein stated, or more) and 

the estate advertised as aforesaid against the name of , 

was struck off to A B, for the sum of dollars and 

cents, he being the highest bidder therefor. I further depose and 
say that said A B failed to pay to me as such Collector, within ten 
daySj the sum offered by him for said estate C D, 

Collector of Taxes for the of 

S .,ss. 18 . 

Then personally appeared the above named C D, Collector of 
Taxes for the of , and made oath that the above 

statement by him subscribed is true. Before me, 

Justice of the Peace. 
(Here annex a copy of the advertisement.) 

No. 26. — Forms of Notices when Tax Title is Deemed 

Invalid, under Sections 1029 and 1032. 

(From the Assessors to the Collector.) 

Ofnce of the Board of Assessors, 18 . 
To the Collector of Taxes for the of : 

Sir : You are hereby notified that the tax assessed as of the first 
da} T of Ma}', 18 , in the name of upon an estate estimated to 



378 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

contain (here insert the area) land, situated (here insert the name 
of street or other description) was invalid by reason of error in 
assessment ; and that any deed given by you in consequence of a 
sale for the non-payment of such tax, conveyed no valid title to 
the purchaser. And the Board approves of your sending a notice 
to that effect, to the owner of said estate. 

Board of Assessors of the of , by 

AB, 
One of said Assessors. 
No. 27. — 

(From the Collector to the Holder of the Title.) 

Collector's Office, 18 . 

To 

You are hereby notified that I have reason to believe that 
the tax assessed as of the first day of May, 18 , in the name 
of , upon an estate estimated to contain of land, 

situated (Here describe the estate), being the same conveyed to 
, by Collector, and recorded with Deeds, 

Libro , Folio , was in my opinion invalid by reason 

of an error (in the assessment or in the proceedings of the sale). 
(Here give a brief statement of the defect:) and I do hereby, 

with the approval of the assessors of said , notify and re- 

quire you, within thirty days from the time when this notice shall 
be served upon you, to surrender and discharge the deed so given, 
and to receive from the of the sum due therefor, with 

interest as provided by law, or to file with the Collector a written 
statement that }*ou refuse to make such surrender and discharge. 

CD, 
Collector of Taxes for the of 



TOWN TREASURERS. 379 



CHAPTER XI. 

TOWN TREASURERS. 

§ 1049. The town treasurer shall give bond in such sum 
as the selectmen require, with sureties to their satisfaction, for 
the faithful discharge of the duties of his office ; shall receive 
and take charge of all money belonging to his town, and shall 
pay over and account for the same according to the order of 
such town, or of the officers thereof duly authorized in that 
behalf. Sts. 1893, ch. 423, § 13. 

The bond required in the preceding section should be given 
to the town, and not to the selectmen. Stevens v. Hay, 6 
Cush. 229. 

A town treasurer is not excused from paying over money 
collected by him because it has been stolen from him without 
his fault. And his sureties on his bond will be liable for 
his failure to pay on that account. Hancock v. Hazard, 
12 Cush. 112. 

§ 1050. He may in his own name and official capacity 
prosecute suits upon bonds, notes, or other securities given to 
him or to his predecessors in office ; and where no other pro- 
vision is specially made, he shall prosecute for all fines and 
forfeitures which enure to his town or to the poor thereof. 

§ 1051. He shall prosecute for trespasses committed on any 
public building or enclosure belonging to his town ; and when 
a public building is owned partly by the town and partly by 
the county, such prosecution may be made either by the town 
or county treasurer, whichever shall first institute the same. 
Sts. 1893, ch. 423, §§ 14, 15. 

§ 1052. A town may at any meeting appoint its treasurer 
collector of taxes ; and he may appoint deputies, who shall 
give such bonds for the faithful discharge of their duties as 
the selectmen may think proper. Such collector and deputies 



380 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

shall have the same powers as are vested in collectors of taxes. 
Sts. 1893, ch. 423, § 16. 

And such deputies may execute a warrant though it is 
directed to the collector only. Aldrich v. Aldrich, 8 Met. 102. 

§ 1053. A treasurer so appointed collector may issue his 
warrant to the sheriff of the county, or to his deputy, or to 
any constable of the town, directing them to distrain the 
property or take the body of any person who is delinquent in 
the payment of taxes, and to proceed in like manner as 
collectors are required to do in like cases. Sts. 1893, ch. 423, 
§16. 

§ 1054. The treasurer shall annually render to his town a 
true account of all his receipts and payments, and other official 
doings, and shall receive such compensation for his services 
as the town may determine. Sts. 1893, ch. 423, §§ 13, 37. 

§ 1055. Any person authorized to approve demands for 
the supply of materials, labor, or service to a town, may, 
before approving any such demand, require the claimant to 
certify under oath that all the articles for which claim is made 
have been furnished, or that all the labor or service has been 
performed, and that no commission, discount, bonus, reward, 
or present of any kind has been received, or is promised, 
or expected on account of the same. Sts. 1893, ch. 423, 
§40. 

§ 1056. The treasurers of counties, cities, and towns shall 
severally keep records of all licenses upon which the sums 
provided in § 488 ante have been paid to them, with the 
number of each, the names and residences of the persons 
licensed, and the sums received thereon, and all such records 
shall be open for public inspection. Pub. Stats, ch. 68, § 11. 

Bond to be given by Treasurer of a Town. 

Know all men by these presents, 

That we, A B, of B , in the county of E , 

and Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as principal, and C D and 
E F of said B , as sureties, are holden and stand firmly 

bound and obliged unto the said town of B , in the full and 

just sum of dollars, to be paid unto the said town ; to which 

payment well and truly to be made, we bind ourselves, our heirs, 
executors, and administrators, firmly D3' these presents. 



TOWN TREASURERS. 381 

The condition of this obligation is such, That whereas the said 
A B has been chosen treasurer of said town of B , for the 

current }'ear, and has accepted said office, and has been duly sworn 
to the faithful discharge of the duties thereof ; Now if the said A 
B shall as treasurer aforesaid, faithfully account for all the moneys 
which he shall receive as treasurer of said town, and also faithfully 
discharge all other legal duties of said office, then this obligation 
shall be void ; otherwise it shall remain in full force and virtue. 

Sealed with our seals. Dated the day of , in the 

year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and 

A B. [seal.] 

C D. [seal.] 

E F. [seal.] 

Signed, sealed, and delivered in the presence of 



382 THE TOWN OFFICER. 



CHAPTER XII. 

CONSTABLES AND THEIR DUTIES. 

§ 1057. A person chosen to the office of constable, able to 
perform the duties thereof and not exempt, who refuses to 
take the oath and to serve in such office, shall forfeit twenty 
dollars. If he is present in town meeting and declares his 
refusal or neglects for seven days after being summoned to 
take the oath of office or to pay such fine, he shall be prose- 
cuted therefor by the treasurer. Sts. 1893, ch. 423, § 39. 

§ 1058. A constable who gives to the inhabitants of the 
town for which he is chosen a bond with sureties in a sum not 
less than one thousand dollars to the satisfaction of the select- 
men, with condition for the faithful performance of his duties 
in the service of all civil processes committed to him, and 
causes the same, with the approval of the selectmen indorsed 
thereon, to be filed in the office of the town clerk, may, within 
his town, serve any writ or other process in a personal action 
in which the damages are not laid at a greater sum than two 
hundred dollars, and any process in replevin in which the sub- 
ject matter does not exceed in value two hundred dollars, and 
any writ or other process under the provisions of chapter one 
hundred and seventy-five of the Public Statutes ; and no con- 
stables shall serve any process in a civil action until he gives 
such bond. Sts. 1893, ch. 423, § 27. 

A constable has no authority to serve the process issuing 
upon a libel for divorce, unless by special order of the court. 
Leavitt v. Leavitt, 135 Mass. 191. 

§ 1059. A constable, who gives and files such bond so 
indorsed in a sum not less than three thousand dollars, may, 
within his town, serve any writ or other process in a personal 
action in which the damages are laid at a sum not exceeding 
three hundred dollars, and any process in replevin in which 
the subject matter does not exceed in value three hundred 
dollars. 



CONSTABLES AND THEIR DUTIES. 383 

§ 1060. The town clerk shall note upon every bond given 
by a constable the time when the same was filed. Any person 
injured by a breach of the condition of such bond may at his 
own expense institute a suit thereon in the name of the town, 
and like proceedings shall be had as in a suit by a creditor on 
an administration bond. The writ shall be indorsed by the 
persons for whose benefit the suit is brought; and if neither 
of them is an inhabitant of this Commonwealth, it shall also 
be indorsed by some other responsible indorser residing in this 
Commonwealth. If judgment is for the defendants, execution 
shall issue for costs against the indorsers, as if they were 
plaintiffs of record. Sts. 1893, ch. 423, §§ 28, 29. 

An action may be maintained on a constable's bond on proof 
of a judgment against him in an action for official misconduct. 
Fall River v. Riley, 138 Mass. 336. 

To attach the goods of A., on a writ against B., is a breach 
of the condition of his official bond given for the faithful per- 
formance of his duties in the service of civil processes. Green- 
field v. Wilson, 13 Gray, 386 ; Turner v. Sisson, 137 Mass. 191. 

§ 1061. Constables may serve such writs and processes as 
are described in § 1058 ante and warrants and other processes 
in criminal cases, although their town, parish, religious society, 
or school district is a party, or interested. Sts. 1893, ch. 423, 
§30. 

§ 1062. They may serve by copy by them attested all 
demands, notices, and citations, and their returns of service 
thereof shall be prima facie evidence ; but this provision shall 
not exclude the service thereof by other parties. Sts. 
1893, ch. 423, § 31. They may require suitable aid in the 
execution of their office in a criminal case, or for the preser- 
vation of the peace, or for the apprehending or securing of a 
person for a breach of the peace ; and may require like aid in 
cases of escape or rescue of persons arrested upon civil pro- 
cess. Pub. Stats, ch. 25, § 18 ; Sts. 1893, ch. 423, § 32. 

§ 1063. They shall serve all warrants and other processes, 
lawfully directed to them by the selectmen of their town, for 
notifying town meetings or for other purposes. 

§ 1064. They shall take due notice of and prosecute all 
violations of the laws respecting the observance of the Lord's 



384 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

day, and of those to prevent profane swearing, and against 
gaming. 

§ 1065. A constable in the execution of a warrant or writ 
directed to him may convey beyond the limits of his town 
prisoners and property in his custody under such process, 
either to the justice who issued it, or to the common jail or 
house of correction of his county. 

§ 1066. If a person against whom a warrant is issued for 
an alleged offence committed within any town, before or after 
the issuing of the warrant, escapes from or is out of such 
town, any constable thereof to whom the warrant is directed 
may pursue and apprehend him in any -place in the Common- 
wealth. Sts. 1893, ch. 423, §§ 33-36. 

A constable may upon a capias issued by a district court in 
a criminal case, arrest a person outside of the town for which 
he is elected, but in the same county, and within the jurisdic- 
tion of the court issuing the warrant. Sullivan v. Wentworth, 
137 Mass. 233. 

§ 1067. Constables, city marshals, chiefs of police, and all 
other police officers, shall within their respective cities and 
towns aid the governor in the discharge of his duties whenever 
called upon for that purpose ; and any such officer who refuses 
to do so when called upon shall be punished by imprisonment 
in jail not exceeding three months, or by fine not exceeding 
one hundred dollars. Pub. Stats, ch. 103, § 12. 

§ 1068. A person found in a street, highway, or other 
public place, in the night-time, committing any offence or dis- 
order mentioned in chapter 207 of the Public Statutes, may 
be apprehended by a sheriff, deputy sheriff, constable, or watch- 
man, or by any other person by the order of a magistrate or 
either of said officers, without a written warrant, and kept 
in custody in a convenient place not more then twenty-four 
hours, Sunday excepted ; at or before the expiration of which 
time he shall be brought before a trial justice, or police, dis- 
trict, or municipal court, and proceeded against in the manner 
directed in the preceding section, or discharged, as such justice 
or court shall determine. 

§ 1069. Whoever remains in a street or elsewhere in a 
city or town in wilful violation of an ordinance or by-law, and 



CONSTABLES AND THEIR DUTIES. 385 

whoever in a street or other public place accosts or addresses 
another person with profane or obscene language in wilful 
violation of an ordinance or by-law, may, if unknown to the 
officer making such arrest, be arrested without a warrant by 
any officer authorized to serve criminal process in the place 
where the offence is committed, and kept in custody until he 
can be taken before a court having jurisdiction to punish such 
offence. Pub. Stats, ch. 207, §§ 34, 35. 

§ 1070. Whoever is found in a state of intoxication in a 
public place, or is found in any place in a state of intoxication 
committing a breach of the peace or disturbing others by 
noise, may be arrested without a warrant by a sheriff, deputy 
sheriff, constable, watchman, or police officer, and kept in 
custody in some suitable place until he is so far recovered 
from his intoxication as to render it proper to carry him before 
a court or trial justice. The officer may then make a com- 
plaint against him for the crime of drunkenness. Pub. Stats. 
ch. 207, § 25. 

A police officer (or constable) arresting a person without a 
warrant, under this section, for being intoxicated in a public 
street, is not liable criminally therefor, if he acted in good 
faith, and had reasonable cause to believe such person to be 
intoxicated, although he was not in fact intoxicated. Com. v. 
Cheney, 141 Mass. 102. 

§ 1071. A sheriff, deputy sheriff, constable, or police officer, 
upon view or information, may without a warrant arrest a 
tramp or a vagrant, or one maliciously threatening to injure 
persons or property, or a person found carrying a firearm, or 
other dangerous weapon. Pub. Stats, ch. 207, §§ 38-41. 

§ 1072. Sheriffs, deputy sheriffs, constables, and police 
officers, acting on the request of any person or upon their own 
information or belief, shall without a warrant arrest all idle 
persons who, not having visible means of support, live without 
lawful employment ; all persons wandering abroad and visiting 
tippling-shops or houses of ill-fame, or lodging in groceries, 
out-houses, market-places, sheds, barns, or in the open air, 
and not giving a good account of themselves ; all persons 
wandering abroad and begging, or who go about from door to 
door, or place themselves in the streets, highways, passages, 

25 



386 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

or other public places, to beg or receive alms, and carry any 
such vagrant before a trial justice, or police, district, or 
municipal court, for the purpose of an examination, and make 
complaint against him. Pub. Stats, ch. 207, §§ 42, 43. 

§ 1073. A person known to be a pickpocket, thief, or 
burglar, and having no visible or lawful means of support, 
when found prowling around any steamboat landing, railroad 
depot, banking institution, broker's office, place of public 
amusement, auction-room, store, shop, crowded thoroughfare, 
car, or omnibus, or at any public gathering or assembly, shall 
be deemed a vagabond, and shall be punished by imprisonment 
in the house of correction for not less than four nor more 
than twelve months. 

§ 1074. Sheriffs, deputy sheriffs, constables, and police 
officers shall take any such vagabond into custody without a 
warrant, and shall within twenty -four hours after such arrest, 
Sundays and legal holidays excepted, bring him before a trial 
justice, or police, district, or municipal court, and make com- 
plaint against him. Pub. Stats, ch. 207, §§ 44, 45. 

§ 1075. Sheriffs, deputy sheriffs, constables, and police 
officers shall prosecute all violations of the provisions of sec- 
tions fifty-two, fifty-three, fifty -four, and fifty-five of the Public 
Statutes, chapter 207, and of chapter two hundred and sixty- 
seven of the Statutes of 1889, which come to their notice, and 
fines collected upon or resulting from the complaint or infor- 
mation of an officer or agent of the Massachusetts Society for 
the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals shall be paid over to 
said society. Pub. Stats, ch. 207, § 58 ; Sts. 1889, ch. 267. 

§ 1076. Any officer authorized to serve criminal process 
may without a warrant enter any place, building, or tenement 
where there is an exhibition of the fighting of birds, dogs, or 
other animals, or where preparations are making for such an 
exhibition, and arrest all persons there present, and take pos- 
session of and remove from the place of seizure the birds, 
dogs, or other animals engaged in fighting, or there found and 
intended to be used or engaged in fighting, or kept or trained 
for fighting, and hold the same in custody, subject to the 
order of court as hereinafter provided. Pub. Stats, ch. 207, 
§61. 



CONSTABLES AND THEIR DUTIES. 387 

§ 1077. Constables and police officers shall, within their 
respective towns and cities, arrest and prosecute every person 
whom they may have reason to believe to be guilty of violating 
the provisions stated in §§ 486-489 ante, and one half of any 
forfeiture which may be incurred and recovered shall be paid 
to the complainant. 1 Pub. Stats, ch. 68, § 19. 

FORMS. 

Return on a Warrant for Town Meeting. 

E , ss. March 189 . 

I have served the within warrant b} T posting up an attested copy 
of the same at the Town Hall, and also at the First Parish meeting- 
house fourteen days before the said da} T of March, 189 , as 
within directed. 

A. B., Constable of T d. 

Notice to a Person drawn as Juror. 

E , ss. To E. F., of T d. You are hereby notified that 

on the day of instant, you were drawn to serve as 

juror at the term of the Superior Court to be holden at N 

on the first Monday of next, and to attend said court on 

said first Monday at o'clock, a. m. 

A. B., Constable of T d. 

Return on a Venire for the Appointment of Jurors. 

E , ss. Pursuant to the within directions I notified the select- 
men and town clerk of said T d to meet as within prescribed 

and draw a juror to serve at the court within named, and on 

the day of instant G. H. was drawn as such juror ; and 

on the day of instant I summoned him to attend said 

court on the first Monday of 189 . 

A. B., Constable of T d. 

Fees, service, $ 

Travel, miles, $ 

1 A town may establish and keep a watch, who shall see that all disturbances 
and disorders are prevented and suppressed ; and a town may establish watch 
districts. Pub. Stats, ch. 34, §§ 1-19. 



388 THE TOWN OFFICER. 



CHAPTER Xm. 

BOARDS OF HEALTH. 

(a) Town Boards. 

§ 1078. A town respecting which no provision is made by 
special law for choosing a board of health may, at its annual 
meeting or at a meeting legally warned for the purpose, 
choose a board of health by ballot, to consist of not less than 
three nor more than nine persons ; or may choose a health 
officer. If no such board or officer is chosen, the selectmen 
shall be the board of health. Pub. Stats, ch. 80, § 3. 

§ 1079. If a person elected a member of a board of health 
in any town, respecting which no provision is made by special 
law foi choosing a board of health, after being duly notified 
of his election in the manner in which town officers are 
required to be notified, refuses or neglects to accept said office, 
or if a member of a board of health in such town declines 
further service, or from change of residence or otherwise 
becomes unable to attend to the duties of the board, the 
remaining members shall, in writing, give notice of the fact to 
the selectmen of such town, and the two boards shall there- 
upon, after giving public notice of at least one week, jointly 
proceed to fill such vacancy. Sts. 1885, ch. 307. 

§ 1080. Every such board of health may appoint a physi- 
cian to the board, who shall hold his office during its 
pleasure. 

§ 1081. Such board shall establish the salary or other 
compensation of such physician, and shall regulate all fees 
and charges of persons employed by it in the execution of the 
health laws and of its own regulations. Pub. Stats, ch. 80, 

§§ 5, 6. 

§ 1082. The board of health in a city or town may appoint 
an agent or agents to act for it in cases of emergency, or 



BOARDS OF HEALTH. 389 

when it cannot be conveniently assembled ; and such agent so 
appointed shall have all the authority which the board appoint- 
ing him had ; but he shall, within two days, report his action 
in each case to it for its approval, and shall be directly 
responsible to it and under its control and direction. An 
agent appointed to make sanitary inspections may make com- 
plaint in cases of violation of any law, ordinance, or by-law 
relating to the public health in a city or town. 

§ 1083. The board of health of a city or town shall retain 
charge of any case arising under the provisions of this chapter 
in which it shall have acted, to the exclusion of the overseers 
of the poor. Pub. Stats, ch. 80, §§ 16, 17. 

(b) Nuisances, Contagion, etc. 

§ 1084. The board of health of a town shall make such 
regulations as it judges necessary for the public health and 
safety, respecting nuisances, sources of filth, and causes of 
sickness, within its town, or on board of vessels within the 
harbor of such town, and respecting articles which are capable 
of containing or conveying infection or contagion, or of 
creating sickness, brought into or conveyed from its town, or 
into or from any vessel. Whoever violates any such regula- 
tion shall forfeit a sum not exceeding one hundred dollars. 
Pub. Stats, ch. 80, § 18. 

A board of health in abating a private nuisance must not 
so act as to wilfully and intentionally do unnecessary acts in 
an improper manner to the injury of the property of the person 
upon whose premises the nuisance exists. Conway v. Russell, 
151 Mass. 581. In the absence of statutory authority, neither 
the board of health nor the city council has any power to erect 
a dam on a person's land without his consent, for the purpose 
of abating a nuisance existing on adjacent land. u The gen- 
eral power vested in boards of health is not adequate to deal- 
ing with such cases." Allen, J., in Cavanagh v. Boston, 139 
Mass. 426. 

§ 1085. The board shall give notice of all regulations made 
by it by publishing the same in some newspaper of its town, 
or, where there is no such newspaper, by posting them up in 



390 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

some public place in the town. Such notice shall be deemed 
legal notice to all persons. 

§ 1086. The board shall examine into all nuisances, sources 
of filth, and causes of sickness, within its town, or in any 
vessel within the harbor of such town, that may in its opinion 
be injurious to the health of the inhabitants, and shall destroy, 
remove, or prevent the same, as the case may require. Pub. 
Stats, ch. 80, §§ 19, 20. 

§ 1087. The board or the health officer shall order the 
owner or occupant at his own expense to remove any nuisance, 
source of filth, or cause of sickness, found on private property, 
within twenty -four hours, or such other time as it deems 
reasonable, after notice served as provided in the following 
section ; and if the owner or occupant neglects so to do, he 
shall forfeit a sum not exceeding twenty dollars for every day 
during which he knowingly permits such nuisance or cause of 
sickness to remain after the time prescribed for the removal 
thereof. Pub. Stats, ch. 80, § 21. 

Such order for the removal of a nuisance is valid without 
previous notice to the parties interested, and opportunity for 
them to appear and be heard. 

But it is necessary that the order should be so explicit as to 
sufficiently inform the party of the nature and locality of the 
nuisance to be removed. And it need not prescribe a mode 
for the removal, as the owner or occupant of the property on 
which the nuisance is found is not restricted by such pre- 
scription if made. Salem v. Eastern Railroad, 98 Mass. 431. 

A notice issued under this section, by the board of health 
of a town to the occupant of certain premises, ordering him 
to remove a nuisance existing thereon, may be served by a 
constable although he is a member of the board of health, and 
signs the notice. Com, v. Alden, 143 Mass. 113. 

A notice issued under this section to the occupant of certain 
premises by the board of health of a town, reciting that a 
nuisance " consisting of a filthy hog-pen and stable " exists 
thereon, and ordering him " to abate the said nuisance on your 
estate, and also to remove your hogs outside the limits of the 
village, within forty-eight hours from the service thereof," is 
valid as an order to abate the nuisance, and is not rendered 



BOARDS OF HEALTH. 391 

void by the direction to remove the hogs. Com. v. Alden, 143 
Mass. 113. 

It is not necessary that a complaint to recover the forfeiture 
provided by this section, for permitting a nuisance to remain 
on the premises after the time prescribed by the board of 
health of the town for its removal, should be made by the 
town treasurer, but it may be made by an agent of the board 
of health. Com. v. Alden, 143 Mass. 113. 

§ 1088. Such order shall be made in writing, and served 
by any person competent to serve a notice in a civil suit per- 
sonally on the owner, occupant, or his authorized agent ; or 
a copy of the order may be left at the last and usual place 
of abode of the owner, occupant, or agent, if he is known 
and within the state. But if the premises are unoccupied and 
the residence of the owner or agent is unknown or without 
the state, the notice may be served by posting the same on the 
premises, and advertising in one or more public newspapers 
in such manner and for such length of time as the board or 
health officer may direct. Pub. Stats, ch. 80, § 22. 

§ 1089. If the owner or occupant fails to comply with such 
order, the board may cause the nuisance, source of filth, or 
cause of sickness, to be removed, and all expenses incurred 
thereby shall be paid by the owner, occupant, or other person 
who caused or permitted the same, if he has had actual notice 
from the board of health of the existence thereof. Pub. 
Stats, ch. 80, § 23. 

Upon the failure of the owner or occupant of the property 
on which the nuisance is found to remove the same, the board 
is not restricted to the mode prescribed in the order, but may 
adopt any which is suitable, even if, in so doing, it is necessary 
to subvert soil adjoining that on which the nuisance exists. 

And in an action by the authorities against a party alleged 
to have caused a nuisance, to recover money expended by the 
board of health for removing it, if such party had no oppor- 
tunity to be heard before the board, none of the findings or 
adjudications of the board preliminary to the incurring of 
such expenses are conclusive upon him, and all the facts on 
which the recovery is sought are open to be controverted, and 
must be established by the proofs. Salem v. Eastern Railroad, 
98 Mass. 431. 



392 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

§ 1090. The board, when satisfied upon due examination 
that a cellar, room, tenement, or building, in its town, occu- 
pied as a dwelling-place, has become, by reason of the number 
of occupants, want of cleanliness, or other cause, unfit for 
such purpose, and a cause of nuisance or sickness to the occu- 
pants or the public, may issue a notice in writing to such 
occupants, or any of them, requiring the premises to be put 
into a proper condition as to cleanliness, or, if they see fit, 
requiring the occupants to quit the premises within such time 
as the board may deem reasonable. If the persons so notified, 
or any of them, neglect or refuse to comply with the terms of 
the notice, the board may cause the premises to be properly 
cleansed at the expense of the owners, or may remove the 
occupants forcibly, and close up the premises, and the same 
shall not be again occupied as a dwelling-place without the 
consent in writing of the board. If the owner thereafter 
occupies or knowingly permits the same to be occupied with- 
out such permission in writing, he shall forfeit not less than 
ten nor more than fifty dollars. 

§ 1091. When a person is convicted on an indictment for 
a common nuisance injurious to the public health, the court in 
its discretion may order it to be removed or destroyed at the 
expense of the defendant, under the direction of the board of 
health ; and the form of the warrant to the sheriff or other officer 
may be varied accordingly. Pub. Stats, ch. 80, §§ 24, 25, 

§ 1092. When the board thinks it necessary for the pre- 
servation of the lives or health of the inhabitants to enter any 
land, building, premises, or vessel within its town, for the pur- 
pose of examining into and destroying, removing, or prevent- 
ing a nuisance, source of filth, or cause of sickness, and the 
board or any agent thereof sent for that purpose is refused 
such entry, any member of the board, or such agent, may 
make complaint under oath to any justice of any court of 
record, or to two justices of the peace of the county, stating 
the facts of the case so far as he has knowledge thereof; and 
said justice or justices may thereupon issue a warrant, directed 
to the sheriff or any of his deputies, to such agent of the 
board, or to any constable of such town, commanding him to 
take sufficient aid, and at any reasonable time repair to the 



BOARDS OF HEALTH. 393 

place where such nuisance, source of filth, or cause of sick- 
ness complained of may be, and to destroy, remove, or prevent 
the same, under the directions of the board. Pub. Stats, ch. 
80, § 27. 

§ 1093. Lands in a city or town which are wet, rotten, or 
spongy, or covered with stagnant water, so as to be offensive 
to persons residing in the vicinity thereof, or injurious to 
health, shall be deemed to be a nuisance, and the board of 
health or health officer of such city or town may, upon petition 
and hearing, abate such nuisance in the manner provided in 
the following sections ; but no such nuisance shall be abated by 
a board of health or health officer of a city or town without 
a previous appropriation therefor by such city or town if the 
expense of such abatement will exceed the sum of two thousand 
dollars. Pub. Stats, ch. 80, § 28 ; Sts. 1887, ch. 338, § 1. 

§ 1094. Any person claiming to be injuriously affected by 
such nuisance may, by petition describing the premises upon 
which it is alleged to exist, and setting out the nature of the 
nuisance complained of, apply to the board or health officer 
for its abatement ; whereupon such board or health officer 
shall proceed to view the premises, and examine into the 
nature and cause of such nuisance. 

§ 1095. Upon such examination, the board or health offi- 
cer, if of opinion that the prayer of the petition, or any part 
thereof, should be granted, shall appoint a time and place for 
a hearing, and before the time so appointed shall cause reason- 
able notice of the time and place to be given to the petitioners, 
the persons whose lands it may be necessary to enter upon to 
abate the nuisance, and any other persons who may be affected 
by the proceedings, and, except in those cities and towns in 
which the mayor and aldermen and selectmen constitute the 
board of health, to the mayor or the chairman of the select- 
men, that they may be heard upon the necessity and mode of 
abating such nuisance, and the questions of damages, and of 
the assessment and apportionment of the expenses of the 
abatement. 

§ 1096. Such notice shall be in writing, and may be served, 
by any person competent to serve civil process, upon the 
mayor or chairman of the selectmen, the petitioners, the 



394 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

owner or occupant of any land upon which it may be necessary 
to enter, or which may be benefited by the abatement, or the 
authorized agent of such owner or occupant, or by leaving an 
attested copy of such notice at the last and usual place of 
abode of such persons ; but if the lands are unoccupied, and 
the owner or agent is unknown, or out of the state, the notice 
to such owner may be served by posting an attested copy 
thereof upon the premises, or by advertising in one or more 
public newspapers in such manner and for such length of time 
as the board or health officer may direct. Pub. Stats, ch. 80, 
§§ 29-31. 

§ 109T. At the time and place appointed for the hearing, 
the board or health officer shall hear the parties, and after 
the hearing may cause such nuisance to be abated, according 
to its or his discretion ; and for that purpose may enter and 
make such excavations, embankments, and drains upon any 
lands, and under and across any streets and ways, as may be 
necessary for such abatement ; and shall also determine in 
what manner and at whose expense the improvements made 
shall be kept in repair, and shall estimate and award the 
amount of damage sustained by and benefit accruing to any 
person by reason of such improvements, and what proportion 
of the expense of making and keeping the same in repair shall 
be borne by the city or town and by any person benefited 
thereby. The damages so awarded shall be paid by the city 
or town, and there shall be assessed to the several persons 
benefited by such improvements their proportionate part, to be 
ascertained as before provided, of the expense of making and 
keeping in repair such improvements, and the same shall be 
included in the next city or town taxes of such persons, and 
shall be a lien upon the real estate benefited thereby, and be 
collected in the same manner as other taxes upon real estate. 
Any person aggrieved by the assessment so made may at 
any time within three months after receiving notice thereof, 
apply for a jury ; such application shall be made in like 
manner and the proceedings thereon shall be the same as in 
case of lands taken for laying out of highways : provided, that 
before making his application, the party shall give one month's 
notice in writing to the selectmen or mayor and aldermen of 



BOARDS OP HEALTH. 395 

his intention so to apply, and shall therein particularly specify 
his objections to the assessment, to which specification he 
shall be confined upon the hearing by the jury. Pub. Stats. 
ch. 80, § 32 ; Sts. 188T, ch. 338, § 3. 

§ 1098. Any person entitled to notice of the time and 
place of hearing upon a petition to the board of health or 
health officer, under the provisions stated in § 1093 ante as has 
been mentioned in § 1095 ante, who is aggrieved by the deci- 
sion of such board or health officer that the land described in 
such petition is a nuisance, may appeal therefrom to the 
superior court, who may hear and determine the matter of 
such appeal, and during such appeal all proceedings in regard 
to such nuisance by such board or health officer shall be 
stayed. The party so appealing shall within twenty-four 
hours after such decision give written notice to said board or 
health officer of his intention so to appeal, and within seven 
days shall present a petition to the superior court setting forth 
the grievances complained of, and the action of the board of 
health or health officer thereon, and shall thereupon enter 
into such recognizance before said court in such sum and with 
such surety or sureties as shall be ordered. Sts. 1887, ch. 
338, § 2. 

§ 1099. The board or health officer shall, within thirty 
days after the abatement of any nuisance in the manner here- 
inbefore provided, make return to the city or town clerk of its 
or his doings in the premises, which return shall be by him 
recorded in the city or town records. 

§ 1100. If the board or health officer unreasonably refuses 
or neglects to proceed in the matter of such petition, the 
petitioner may apply by petition to the superior court, or any 
justice thereof, who, upon a hearing and good cause shown, 
may appoint three commissioners, who shall proceed in the 
manner hereinbefore provided. 

§ 1101. Any person aggrieved by the decision of the board, 
health officer, or commissioners, in their estimate and award 
of damages, may make complaint to the county commissioners 
for the county at any time within one year after the return to 
the city or town clerk ; whereupon the same proceedings shall 
be had as in cases where persons or parties are aggrieved by 



396 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

the award of damages by selectmen for land taken for a 
town way. 

§ 1102. Any person aggrieved by the neglect or refusal of 
the board of health in a city or town to pass all proper orders 
abating a nuisance or nuisances, may appeal to the county 
commissioners, who may hear and determine the matter of 
such appeal, and exercise in such case all the powers which 
the board might exercise. 

§ 1103. The party so appealing shall, within twenty-four 
hours after such neglect or refusal, give written notice to the 
opposite party of his intention so to appeal, and within seven 
days shall present a petition to some one of the commissioners, 
setting forth the grievances complained of, and the action of 
the board of health thereon, and shall thereupon enter into 
such recognizance before the commissioners, in such sum, and 
with such surety or sureties, as they shall order. Pub. Stafcs, 
ch. 80, §§ 33-37. 

§ 1104. The board of health of a town may grant permits 
for the removal of any nuisance, infected articles, or sick 
person, within the limits of its town, when it thinks it safe 
and proper so to do. 

§ 1105. When a person coming from abroad or residing in 
a town in this state is infected, or lately has been infected, 
with the plague or other sickness dangerous to the public 
health, except as is otherwise provided in this chapter, the 
board shall make effectual provision in the manner which it 
judges best for the safety of the inhabitants, by removing such 
person to a separate house or otherwise, and by providing 
nurses and other assistance and necessaries, which shall be at 
the charge of the person himself, his parents, or master, if 
able, otherwise at the charge of the town to which he belongs ; 
or, if he is not an inhabitant of any town, at the charge of the 
Commonwealth. 

§ 1106. If the infected person cannot be removed without 
danger to his health, the board shall make provision for him, 
as directed in the preceding section, in the house in which he 
may be ; and may cause the persons in the neighborhood to be 
removed, and take such other measures as it judges necessary 
for the safety of the inhabitants. 



BOARDS OF HEALTH. 397 

§ 1107. The board of health of a town near to or bordering 
upon either of the neighboring states, may appoint, by writing, 
suitable persons to attend at places by which travellers may 
pass from infected places in other states ; who may examine 
such travellers as it suspects of bringing any infection 
dangerous to the public health, and, if need be, may restrain 
them from travelling until licensed thereto by the board of 
health of the town to which they may come. A traveller 
coming from such infected place, who without such license 
travels within this state (except to return by the most direct 
way to the state whence he came), after he has been cautioned 
to depart by the persons so appointed, shall forfeit a sum not 
exceeding one hundred dollars. 

§ 1108. Two justices of the peace may, if need be, make 
out a warrant directed to the sheriff of the county or his 
deputy, or to any constable, requiring them under the direction 
of the board to remove any person infected with contagious 
sickness, or to impress and take up convenient houses, lodging, 
nurses, attendants, and other necessaries, for the accommoda- 
tion, safety, and relief of the sick. 

§ 1109. When, upon the application of the board, it appears 
to a justice of the peace that there is just cause to suspect 
that baggage, clothing, or goods, found within the town, are 
infected with the plague or other disease dangerous to the 
public health, he shall, by warrant directed to the sheriff or 
his deputy, or to any constable, require him to impress so 
many men as said justice may judge necessary to secure such 
baggage, clothing, or goods, and to post said men as a guard 
over the house or place where such articles are lodged ; who 
shall take effectual care to prevent persons from removing or 
coming near the same until due inquiry is made into the 
circumstances. 

§ 1110. The justice may by the same warrant, if it appears 
to him necessary, require the officers, under the direction of 
the board, to impress and take up convenient houses or stores 
for the safe keeping of such articles ; and the board may 
cause them to be removed thereto, or otherwise detained, 
until, in the opinion of the board, they are freed from 
infection. 



398 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

§ 1111. The officers, in the execution of the warrant, shall, 
if need be, break open any house, shop, or other place, men- 
tioned in the warrant, where such articles are ; and may 
' require such aid as is necessary to effect the execution of the 
warrant. Whoever neglects or refuses to assist in the execu- 
tion of the warrant, after being commanded to assist by either 
of said officers, shall forfeit a sum not exceeding ten dollars. 

§ 1112. The charges of securing such articles, and trans- 
porting and purifying the same, shall be paid by the owners, 
at such rates and prices as may be determined by the board. 

§ 1113. When a sheriff or other officer impresses or takes 
up any houses, stores, lodging, or other necessaries, or 
impresses men, as provided in this chapter, the several parties 
interested shall be entitled to a just compensation therefor, to 
be paid by the town in which such persons or property are so 
impressed. 

§ 1114. When a person confined in a common jail, house 
of correction, or workhouse, has a disease which, in the 
opinion of the physician of the board, or of such other 
physician as it may consult, is dangerous to the safety and 
health of other prisoners or of the inhabitants of the town, the 
board shall by its order in writing direct the removal of such 
person to some hospital or other place of safety, there to be 
provided for and securely kept so as to prevent his escape 
until its further order. If such person recovers from the 
disease, he shall be returned to said prison or other place of 
confinement. 

§ 1115. If the person so removed is committed by order of 
court or under judicial process, the order for his removal, or 
a copy thereof attested by the presiding member of the board, 
shall be returned by him, with the doings thereon, into the 
office of the clerk of the court from which the process of com- 
mitment was issued. No prisoner so removed shall thereby 
commit an escape. 

(c) Vaccination. 

§ 1116. Parents and guardians shall cause their children 
and wards to be vaccinated before they attain the age of two 
years, and revaccinated when the selectmen or mayor and 



BOARDS OF HEALTH. 399 

aldermen shall after five years from the last vaccination 
require it. For every year's neglect the party offending shall 
forfeit five dollars. Pub. Stats, ch. .80, §§ 39-51. 

§ 1117. The selectmen or mayor and aldermen shall 
require and enforce the vaccination of all the inhabitants, 
and, when in their opinion the public health requires it, the 
revaccination of all the inhabitants who do not prove to their 
satisfaction that they have been successfully vaccinated or 
revaccinated within five years. Every person over twenty-one 
years of age, not under guardianship, who neglects to comply 
with any such requirement, shall forfeit five dollars. Towns 
shall furnish the means of vaccination to such of their inhabi- 
tants as are unable to pay for the same. Pub. Stats, ch. 80, 
§§ 52, 53. 

§ 1118. Incorporated manufacturing companies, superin- 
tendents of almshouses, state reform schools, industrial 
schools, lunatic hospitals, and other places where the poor 
and sick are received, masters of houses of correction, jailers, 
keepers of prisons, warden of the state prison, and superin- 
tendents or officers of all other institutions supported or aided 
by the state, shall at the expense of their respective establish- 
ments or institutions cause all inmates thereof to be vaccinated 
immediately upon their entrance thereto, unless they produce 
sufficient evidence of previous successful vaccination within 
Hve years. 

§ 1119. Each town may make further provision for the vac- 
cination of its inhabitants, under the direction of the board 
of health or of a committee. Pub. Stats, ch. 80, §§ 54, 55. 

(d) Lying-in Hospitals. 

§ 1120. The selectmen of a town may license any person 
to establish or keep therein a lying-in hospital, hospital ward, 
or other place for the reception, care, and treatment of women 
in labor, if the board of health shall first certify to the select- 
men that the person applying for such license is in its judg- 
ment a suitable person, and that, from its inspection and 
examination of such hospital, hospital ward, or other place 
aforesaid, the same is suitable, and properly arranged and 
provided for such business. Such license shall continue in 



400 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

force for two years, subject, however, to revocation by the 
selectmen. Every such hospital, hospital ward, or other place, 
shall be subject to visitation and inspection at any time by the 
board of health, the chief of police, and the selectmen ; and 
if it receives in a year more than six women as patients in 
labor, it shall also be subject to like visitation and inspection 
by the state board of health. Pub. Stats, ch. 80, §§ 56-58 ; 
Sts. 1886, ch. 101, § 4. 

(e) Protection of Infants. 

§ 1121. Whoever engages in the business of taking nursing 
infants or infants under three years of age to board, or of 
entertaining or boarding more than two such infants in the 
same house at the same time, shall, within two days after the 
reception of every such infant beyond the first two, give written 
notice to the board of health of the city or town where such 
infant is so to be entertained or boarded, specifying the name 
and age of the child and the name and place of residence of the 
party so undertaking its care ; and such board may enter and 
inspect said house and premises while said business is carried 
on, and direct and enforce such sanitary measures respecting 
such children and premises as it may deem proper. 

§ 1122. Whoever violates any of the provisions of the 
preceding section, or refuses admission to such board for said 
purpose, shall be punished by fine of not less than fifty nor 
more than five hundred dollars. Pub. Stats, ch. 80, §§ 60, 61. 

§ 1123. No person shall maintain a boarding-house for 
infants under the age of five years unless licensed by the 
board of health of the city or the selectmen of the town in 
which the same is located. Whoever violates the provisions 
of this section shall be punished by fine not exceeding one 
hundred dollars or by imprisonment not exceeding one year 
or by both such fine and imprisonment. 

§ 1124. Whoever shall for hire, gain, or reward have in his 
custody or control at one time more than three infants under 
the age of five years, unattended by a parent or guardian, 
for the purpose of providing care, food, and lodging for such 
infants, shall be deemed to maintain a boarding-house for 
infants within the meaning of this act. 



BOARDS OF HEALTH. 401 

§ 1125. The board of health of cities and the selectmen 
of towns may grant a license to maintain a boarding-house for 
infants. Said boards of health and the selectmen of towns 
shall annually, and may at all times, visit and inspect premises 
so licensed, and may at any time designate any person to visit 
and inspect said premises. Sts. 1889, ch. 416. 

(f) Quarantine. 

§ 1126. A town may establish a quarantine ground in a 
suitable place, either within or without its own limits ; but if 
such place is without its limits, the assent of the town within 
whose limits it may be established shall be first obtained. 

§ 1127. Two or more towns may at their joint expense 
establish a quarantine ground for their common use in a suit- 
able place, either within or without their own limits ; but if 
such place is without their limits, they shall first obtain the 
assent of the town within whose limits it may be. Pub. Stats. 
ch. 80, §§ 62, 63. 

§ 1128. The board of health in each seaport town may from 
time to time establish the quarantine to be performed by ves- 
sels arriving within its harbor, and may make such quarantine 
regulations as it judges necessary for the health and safety of 
the inhabitants. Such regulations shall extend to all persons, 
goods, and effects arriving in such vessels, and to all persons 
who may visit or go on board of the same. Whoever violates 
any such regulation, after notice thereof has been given in the 
manner before provided in this chapter, shall forfeit not less 
than five nor more than five hundred dollars. Pub. Stats. 
ch. 80, §§ 64-66. 

The board of health of a town may pass a regulation order- 
ing rags imported into the town to be disinfected, and the 
expense of the disinfection to be borne by the owner of the 
rags ; and the owner cannot show that the rags did not need 
disinfection, if they were of the class concerning which the 
regulation was made. 

" The board of health is invested with the power to make 
regulations necessary for health, extending to all persons, 
goods, and effects, arriving in vessels. This is a reasonable 
regulation, made under the police power of the state, which 

26 



402 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

the board is executing." Devens, J., in Train v. Boston Dis- 
infecting Co., 144 Mass. 523. 

§ 1129. The board in each seaport town may at any time 
cause a vessel arriving in such port, when such vessel or the 
cargo thereof is in its opinion foul or infected so as to endanger 
the public health, to be removed to the quarantine ground and 
thoroughly purified at the expense of the owners, consignees, 
or persons in possession of the same ; and may cause all per- 
sons arriving in or going on board of such vessel, or handling 
the cargo, to be removed to any hospital under the care of the 
board, there to remain under their orders. Pub. Stats, ch. 
80, § 67. 

§ 1130. A master, seaman, or passenger, belonging to a 
vessel on board of which any infection then is or has lately 
been, or is suspected to have been, or which has been at or has 
come from a port where an infectious distemper prevails that 
may endanger the public health, who refuses to make answer 
on oath to such questions as may be asked him relating to such 
infection or distemper by the board of health of the town to 
which such vessel may come (which oath any member of the 
board may administer), shall forfeit a sum not exceeding two 
hundred dollars ; and if not able to pay said sum, he shall 
suffer six months' imprisonment. All expenses incurred on 
account of any person, vessel, or goods, under quarantine regu- 
lations, shall be paid by such person or the owner of such 
vessel or goods respectively. Pub. Stats, ch. 80, §§ 68, 69. 

But this does not include the expenses of a seaman at a 
hospital, to which he had been transferred by order of the 
board of health of a town, and which is under their care. 
Provincetown v. Smith, 120 Mass. 96. 

(g) Hospitals and Dangerous Diseases. 

§ 1131. Any town may establish within its limits, and be 
constantly provided with, one or more hospitals for the recep- 
tion of persons having a disease dangerous to the public health. 
Such hospitals shall be subject to the orders and regulations 
of the board, or of a committee of the town appointed for that 
purpose. No such hospital shall be established within one 
hundred rods of an inhabited dwelling-house situated in an 



BOARDS OF HEALTH. 403 

adjoining town, without the consent of such town. Pub. Stats, 
ch. 80, §§ 70-72. 

§ 1132. When a hospital is established, as provided in the 
preceding section, the physician, nurses, attendants, the per- 
sons sick therein, and all persons approaching or coming within 
the limits thereof, and all furniture and other articles used or 
brought there, shall be subject to such regulations as may be 
made by the board of health or the committee appointed for 
that purpose. Pub. Stats, ch. 80, § 74. 

§ 1133. When a disease dangerous to the public health 
breaks out in a town, the board shall immediately provide 
such hospital or place of reception for the sick and infected 
as is judged best for their accommodation and the safety of the 
inhabitants, which shall be subject to the regulations of the 
board ; and the board may cause any sick and infected person 
to be removed thereto, unless his condition will not admit of 
his removal without danger to his health, in which case the 
house or place where he remains shall be considered as a 
hospital, and all persons residing in or in any way concerned 
within the same shall be subject to the regulations of the 
board, as before provided. Pub. Stats, ch. 80, § 75. 

The board of health of a town has no authority to take pos- 
session of a dwelling house and the furniture therein, without 
the consent of the owner or occupant to his exclusion, and 
use the house as a hospital for a person found therein who is 
infected with a contagious disease, and is too sick to be removed 
without danger to his health ; and the owner cannot maintain 
an action of contract against the town for the use and occupa- 
tion of the house during the time it was so held by the board 
of health, as the act which they did was beyond the powers 
given to them by the town. Spring v. Hyde Park, 137 Mass. 
554. 

" These sections do not authorize the taking possession by 
the board of health acting without a warrant, of premises to 
the exclusion of the owner thereof, or of the person entitled 
to lawful possession, even where one is too sick to be removed ; 
but authorize such premises and the use thereof, to be subjected 
to very stringent regulations." Devens, J., in Brown v. 
Murdoch, 140 Mass. 314. 



404 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

§ 1134. When such disease is found to exist in a town, 
the selectmen and board of health shall use all possible care 
to prevent the spreading of the infection, and to give public 
notice of infected places to travellers, by displaying red flags 
at proper distances, and by all other means which in their 
judgment shall be most effectual for the common safety. 
And whoever obstructs the selectmen, board of health, or its 
agent, in using such means to prevent the spreading of the 
infection, or wilfully removes, obliterates, defaces, or handles 
the red flags or other signals so displayed, shall forfeit for 
each offence not less than ten nor more than one hundred 
dollars. 

§ 1135. If a physician or other person in any of the hospi- 
tals or places of reception before mentioned, or who attends, 
approaches, or is concerned with the same, violates any regu- 
lation lawfully made in relation thereto, either with respect to 
himself or his or any other person's property, he shall for 
each offence forfeit not less than ten nor more than one hun- 
dred dollars. Pub. Stats, ch. 80, §§ 76, 77. 

§ 1136. When a householder knows that a person within 
his family or house is sick of small-pox, diphtheria, scarlet 
fever, or any other infectious or contagious disease dangerous 
to the public health, he shall immediately give notice thereof 
to the board of health of the city or town in which he dwells, 
and upon the death, recovery, or removal of such person, such 
of the rooms of said house and such of the articles therein as, 
in the opinion of the board of health, have been subjected to 
infection or contagion shall be disinfected by such householder 
to the satisfaction of said board of health. Any person 
neglecting or refusing to comply with either of the above 
provisions shall be punished by a fine not exceeding one hun- 
dred dollars. Sts. 1890, ch. 102. 

§ 1137. When a physician knows that a person whom he 
is called to visit is infected with small-pox, diphtheria, scarlet- 
fever, or any other disease dangerous to the public health, he 
shall immediately give notice thereof in writing over his own 
signature to the selectmen or board of health of the town ; 
and if he refuses or neglects to give such notice he shall for- 
feit for each offence not less than fifty nor more than two 
hundred dollars. Sts. 1891, ch. 188. 



BOARDS OF HEALTH. 405 

§ 1138. The boards of health in the several cities and 
towns shall cause a record to be kept of all reports received 
in pursuance of the two preceding sections, and such record 
shall contain the names of all persons who are sick, the local- 
ities in which they live, the diseases with w T hich they are 
affected, together with the date and the names of the persons 
reporting any such cases. The boards of health shall give the 
school committee immediate information of all cases of conta- 
gious diseases reported to them, according to the provisions 
of this act. 

§ 1139. The secretary of the Commonwealth shall furnish 
the boards of health with blank books for the record of cases 
of contagious diseases as above provided. Sts. 1881, ch. 98, 
§§ 3, 4. 

§ 1140. Expenses incurred by a town in the removal of 
nuisances, or for the ^preservation of the public health, which 
are recoverable of a private person or corporation, may be 
sued for and recovered in an action of contract. 

§ 1141. Fines and forfeitures incurred under general laws, 
the special laws applicable to a town, or the by-laws and regu- 
lations of a town, relating to health, shall inure to the use of 
such town. 

§ 1142. The provisions stated in §§ 1105, 1106, 1133, 1134, 
and 1135 ante, so far as they confer authority for the removal 
of patients from their homes, except in cases of persons resid- 
ing in boarding-houses, hotels, or where two or more families 
occupy the same dwelling, and other cases, where in the 
opinion of the board and the attending physician the case 
cannot be properly isolated, shall not apply to small-pox. 
Pub. Stats, ch. 80, §§ 80-82. 

§ 1143. All reasonable expenses which have been hereto- 
fore or may hereafter be incurred by the board of health of a 
city or town, in making the provision required by law for a 
person infected with the small-pox or other disease dangerous 
to the public health, shall be paid by the person himself, his 
parents, or master, if able ; otherwise by the town in which he 
has a legal settlement ; and if he has no settlement, by the 
Commonwealth, in which case the bills therefor shall be 
approved by the state board of lunacy and charity. Pub. 
Stats, ch. 80, § 83 ; Sts. 1886, ch. 101, § 4. 



406 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

§ 1144. When the board of health of any city or town has 
had notice of the occurrence of a case of small-pox in such 
city or town, such board of health shall, within twenty-four 
hours after the receipt of such notice, notify the state board 
of health of the same. Sts. 1883, ch. 138, § 1 ; Sts. 1886, 
ch. 101, § 4. 

§ 1145. If the board of health of the city or town, in which 
a case of small-pox has occurred, refuses or neglects to send 
a notice as required in the preceding section, such city or 
town shall forfeit its claim upon the Commonwealth, for the 
payment of any expenses which may be incurred, as is stated 
in § 1143 ante. Sts. 1883, ch. 138,"§ 2. 

(h) Offensive Trades. 

§ 1146. The board of health of a town shall from time to 
time assign certain places for the exercise of any trade or 
employment which is a nuisance or hurtful to the inhabitants, 
or dangerous to the public health, or the exercise of which is 
attended by noisome and injurious odors, or is otherwise 
injurious to their estates, and may prohibit the exercise of 
such trade or employment in places not so assigned ; the board 
may also forbid such exercise within the limits of the town, 
or in any particular locality thereof. All such assignments 
shall be entered in the records of the town, and may be 
revoked when the board shall think proper. Pub. Stats, 
ch. 80, § 84. 

The board of health of a town may, under this section, pass 
a qualified order forbidding the exercise of the employment 
of keeping swine within the town " without a permit in writing 
first obtained from the board of health " (as well as an abso- 
lute order). Quincy v. Kennard, 151 Mass. 563. 

The board of health of a town made a regulation which 
provided that no swine should be kept in any place without a 
permit first being obtained from the board. Held : that such 
a keeping of swine was an "employment" and that the 
authority of the board to regulate the same was under this 
section. Com., v. Young, 135 Mass. 526. 

§ 1147. When it appears on a trial before the superior 
court for the county, upon a complaint made by any person, 



BOARDS OF HEALTH. 407 

that a place or building so assigned has become a nuisance, by 
reason of offensive smells or exhalations proceeding from the 
same, or is otherwise hurtful or dangerous to the neighbor- 
hood, or to travellers, the court may revoke such assignment 
and prohibit the further use of such place or building for the 
exercise of either of the aforesaid trades or employments, and 
may cause such nuisance to be removed or prevented. 

§ 1148. A person injured either in his comfort or the 
enjoyment of his estate by such nuisance, may have an action 
of tort for the damage sustained thereby. Pub. Stats, ch. 80, 
§§ 85, 86. 

§ 1149. Orders of prohibition under § 1146 ante shall be 
served upon the occupant or person having charge of the 
premises where such trade or employment is exercised. If 
the party upon whom such order is served for twenty-four 
hours after such service refuses or neglects to obey the same, 
the board shall take all necessary measures to prevent such 
exercise ; and the person so refusing or neglecting shall forfeit 
not less than fifty nor more than five hundred dollars. Pub. 
Stats, ch. 80, § 87. 

But an order by the selectmen of a town, acting as a board 
of health, forbidding the exercise of an offensive trade or 
employment therein, need not be served by an officer. 
Winthrop v. Farrar* 11 Allen, 398. 

§ 1150. Any person aggrieved by an order passed under 
§ 1146 ante or 1152 post may appeal therefrom, and shall 
within three days from the service thereof upon him apply to 
the superior court, if in session in the county where the 
premises are located with reference to which such order is 
made, or in vacation to a justice of said court, for a jury ; and 
such court or justice shall issue a warrant for a jury, to be 
impanelled at a time and place expressed in the warrant, in 
the manner provided in regard to the laying out of highways. 
If a person by mistake of law or fact, or by accident, fails to 
appeal from any such order, and to apply to the superior 
court or a justice thereof for a jury within said three days, 
and if he makes it appear to the court or justice that such 
failure was caused by mistake or accident, he may at any time 
within thirty days from the service of the order upon him 



408 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

appeal therefrom and apply for a jury with the same effect as 
if done within the said three days. During the pendency of 
the appeal such trade or employment shall not be exercised 
contrary to the order ; and upon any violation of the order the 
appeal shall forthwith be dismissed. The verdict of the jury, 
which may either alter the order, or affirm or annul it in full, 
shall be returned to the court for acceptance as in case of 
highways ; and said verdict when accepted shall have the 
authority and effect of an original order from which no appeal 
had been taken. If the order is affirmed by the verdict, the 
town shall recover costs against the appellant ; if it is annulled, 
the appellant shall recover damages and costs against the 
town ; and if it is altered the court may render such judgment 
as to costs as in its discretion may seem just. Pub. Stats. 
ch. 80, §§ 88-91. 

§ 1151. Whoever occupies or uses a building for carrying 
on therein the business of slaughtering cattle, sheep, or other 
animals, or for a melting or rendering establishment, or for 
other noxious or offensive trades and occupations, or permits 
or allows said trades or occupations to be carried on upon 
premises owned or occupied by him, without first obtaining 
the written consent and permission of the mayor and alder- 
men of the city or selectmen of the town in which the building 
or premises are situated, shall forfeit a sum not exceeding two 
hundred dollars for every month he so occupies or uses such 
building or premises, and in like proportion for a longer or 
shorter time : provided, that this section shall not apply to 
any building or premises occupied or used for the trades or 
occupations before described on the eighth day of May in the 
year eighteen hundred and seventy-one; but no person occupy- 
ing or using any building or premises on said date for the 
trades or occupations aforesaid shall enlarge or extend the 
same without first obtaining the written consent and permis- 
sion of the mayor and aldermen or selectmen. Pub. Stats. 
ch. 80, § 92. 

§ 1152. When any building or premises are so occupied or 
used, the state board of health shall, upon application made 
to it for that purpose, appoint a time and place for hearing the 
parties, and give due notice thereof to the party against whom 



BOARDS OF HEALTH. 409 

the application is made, and after such notice and hearing 
may, if in its judgment the public health or the public com- 
fort and convenience so require, order any person to desist and 
cease from further carrying on said trades or occupations in 
such building or premises; and any person thereafter continu- 
ing so to occupy or use such building or premises shall forfeit 
a sum not exceeding two hundred dollars for every month of 
such occupancy and use, and in like proportion for a longer 
or shorter time. Pub. Stats, ch. 80, § 93 ; Sts. 1886, ch. 
101, §4. 

§ 1153. The supreme judicial court in term time or vaca- 
tion may issue an injunction to prevent the occupancy, use, 
enlargement, or extension of any building or premises occu- 
pied or used for the trades or occupations aforesaid, without 
the written consent and permission provided in § 1151 ante 
being first obtained ; and also in like manner to enforce the 
orders of the state board issued under the preceding section. 

§ 1154. The three preceding sections shall not be so con- 
strued as to impair any other remedies which may exist in 
cases of nuisance. 1 

(i) Pollution of Rivers and Sources of Water Supply. 

§ 1155. No sewage, drainage, or refuse or polluting matter, 
of such kind and amount as either by itself or in connection 
with other matter will corrupt or impair the quality of the water 
of any pond or stream hereinafter referred to, for domestic 
use, or render it injurious to health, and no human excrement, 
shall be discharged into any pond used as a source of water 
supply by a city or town, or upon whose banks any filter basin 
so used is situated, or into any stream so used, or upon whose 
banks such filter basin is situated, within twenty miles above 
the point where such supply is taken, or into any feeders of 
such pond or stream within such twenty miles. 

1 These provisions regarding the public health are not under the jurisdiction 
of town boards of health, but under that of the state board. If necessary, they 
can be found in the following volumes of the statutes. The provision to prevent 
the adulteration of food and drugs, Sts. 1882, ch. 263; Sts. 1884, ch. 289; Sts. 
1886, 287; Sts. 1891, ch. 319: To prevent the sale of toys or confectionery con- 
taining arsenic, Sts. 1891, ch. 374 : To prevent the sale of impure ice, Sts. 1886, 
ch. 287 : To prevent the manufacture of clothing in unhealthy places, Sts. 1891, 
ch. 357; Sts. 1892, ch. 296. 



410 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

§ 1156. The preceding section shall not be construed to 
destroy or impair rights acquired by legislative grant prior to 
the first day of July in the year eighteen hundred and seventy - 
eight, or to destroy or impair prescriptive rights of drainage or 
discharge, to the extent to which they lawfully existed on that 
date ; and nothing therein contained shall be construed to 
authorize the pollution of any waters in this Commonwealth, 
in any manner contrary to law ; nor shall it be applicable to 
the Merrimack or Connecticut Rivers, or to so much of the 
Concord River as lies within the limits of the city of Lowell. 
Pub. Stats, ch. 80, §§ 91-97. 

§ 1157. The supreme judicial or superior court, in term 
time or vacation, upon the application of the mayor of a city 
or the selectmen of a town interested, may grant an injunc- 
tion against any violation of the provisions stated in § 1155 
ante. Sts. 1884, ch. 154. 

§ 1158. Whenever the mayor of a city or the selectmen of 
a town, using a stream or pond as a source of water supply, 
complains to the state board of health that manure, excre- 
ment, garbage, sewage, or any other matter is so deposited, 
kept, or discharged within one hundred feet of the high water 
mark of any such stream or pond, or any stream, pond, spring, 
or water-course tributary thereto, as to pollute or tend to 
pollute the waters of such stream, pond, spring, or water- 
course, the said board of health shall appoint a time and place 
for hearing parties to be affected, and give due notice thereof 
to such parties ; and after such hearing, if in its judgment the 
public health requires it, may prohibit the deposit, keeping, or 
discharge of any such material as aforesaid, and may order 
any person to desist therefrom and to remove any such material 
theretofore deposited ; but shall not prohibit the use of any 
structure as was customary at the time of 'the passage of this 
act, unless the mayor of the city or the selectmen of the town 
making the complaint shall file with said state board of health 
an agreement in writing that such city or town shall at its own 
expense make such changes in said structure or its location as 
said board shall deem expedient, and such agreement shall be 
binding on such city or town ; and when such changes have 
been made all damages occasioned thereby shall be paid by 



BOARDS OF HEALTH. 411 

such city or town ; and if the parties cannot agree thereon, 
such damages shall be determined by a jury on petition of 
either party filed in the clerk's office of the superior court, in 
the manner provided by law in relation to determining the 
damages occasioned by taking land for highways in such city 
or town ; said board shall not prohibit the cultivation and use 
of the soil in the ordinary methods of husbandry, provided no 
human excrement be used thereon. 

§ 1159. Whoever deposits, keeps, or discharges on his pre- 
mises any material in violation of such order of prohibition, 
after the same has been served upon him as aforesaid, shall 
forfeit a sum not exceeding ten dollars for each and every day 
until such order is complied with. Sts. 1890, ch. 441, §§ 2, 5. 

§ 1160. Whoever bathes in a pond, the water of which is 
used for the purpose of domestic water supply for a city or 
town, shall be punished by fine not exceeding ten dollars. 
Sts. 1884, ch. 172. 

§ 1161. Whoever drives a horse on the ice on a pond, the 
water of which is used for the purpose of domestic water 
supply for a city or town, shall be punished by fine not exceed- 
ing fifty dollars, or imprisonment not exceeding thirty days. 

§ 1162. The preceding section shall not apply to persons 
engaged in cutting or harvesting ice from such ponds, or in 
hauling logs, wood, or lumber. Pub. Stats, ch. 80, §§ 101, 
102. 

CEMETERIES AND BURIALS. 

§ 1163. Boards of health of cities and towns may prohibit 
the use by undertakers, for the purpose of speculation, of 
tombs as places of deposit for bodies committed to them for 
burial ; may, if in their opinion the public health requires it, 
close any tomb, burial-ground, cemetery, or other place of 
burial within the city or town, for such length of time as they 
may deem necessary for the protection of the public health ; 
may make all regulations which they judge necessary concern- 
ing burial-grounds and interments within their respective 
limits, and may establish penalties not exceeding one hun- 
dred dollars for any breach of such regulations. Sts. 1885, 
ch. 278, § 1. 



412 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

They may make regulations prohibiting all persons, except 
the superintendent of the cemetery, or a duly appointed under- 
taker, or other person specially authorized, from removing the 
dead body of any person from any house or place within the 
city or town, to the place of burial, and may require from 
each undertaker a bond with a reasonable penalty, and with 
condition to collect and account for the burial fees. And the 
fact that such a regulation may be made with reference to a 
particular person, will not affect its validity. And if such 
person, having been so appointed as undertaker, fails to give 
the required bond, the board of health may revoke his appoint- 
ment at pleasure, without previous notice to him. 

The word " interments " properly includes and describes 
the removal of the bodies of deceased persons for the purpose 
of burial. That this necessary duty shall be performed, 
especially when undertaken for hire, by suitable and trust- 
worthy persons, and that the moving of dead bodies through 
public streets shall be conducted with decency and safety, 
are obviously matters proper for municipal regulation, and 
which, as well as the mode of burial, may concern the pub- 
lic health to no slight extent. Commonwealth v. Goodrich, 
13 Allen, 546. 

§ 1164. Notice of such regulations shall be given by pub- 
lishing the same in some newspaper of the city or town, or, 
if there is no such newspaper, by posting a copy in some 
public place therein ; which shall be deemed legal notice to 
all persons. Pub. Stats, ch. 82, § 20. 

§ 1165. Before a tomb, burial-ground, or cemetery is closed 
by order of such board of health for a time longer than one 
month, all persons interested shall have an opportunity to be 
heard, and personal notice of the time and place of hearing 
shall be given to at least one owner of the tomb, and to three 
at least, if so many there are, of the proprietors of such 
burial-ground or cemetery, and notice shall also be published 
two successive weeks at least preceding such hearing, in two 
newspapers, if so many there are, published in the county. 

§ 1166. The owner of a tomb aggrieved by the order of the 
board of health closing a tomb, burial-ground, or cemetery, may 
appeal therefrom, and at any time within six months from 



BOARDS OF HEALTH. 413 

the date of the order, enter his appeal in the superior court ; 
and the appellant shall give the board of health fourteen 
days' notice of his appeal previous to the entry thereof. But 
the order of the board shall remain in force until a decision 
is had on the appeal. Pub. Stats, eh. 82, §§ 22, 23. 

§ 1167. Tlie boards of health of towns and the mayor and 
aldermen of cities shall, on or before the first day of July in 
each year, license a suitable number of undertakers to take 
charge of the funeral rites preliminary to the interment of a 
human body. Pub. Stats, ch. 32, § 6. 

§ 1168. No undertaker, sexton, or other person shall bury 
in a city or town or remove therefrom the body of a deceased 
person until he has received a permit so to do from the board 
of health or its duly appointed agent, or, if there is no board 
of health in such city or town, from the city or town clerk. 
No such permit shall be issued until there has been delivered 
to such board, or agent, or clerk, as the case may be, a satis- 
factory written statement containing the facts required to be 
returned and recorded, together with the certificate of the 
attending physician if any, or in lieu thereof a certificate as 
hereinafter provided. If there is no attending physician, 
or if the certificate of the attending physician cannot be 
obtained, for good and sufficient reasons, early enough for the 
purpose, the chairman of the board of health or any physician 
employed by a city or town for the purpose shall, upon request 
of said board, agent, or clerk, make such certificate as is re- 
quired of the attending physician. When such satisfactory 
statement and certificate are delivered to the board of health 
or to its agent, the board or agent shall forthwith countersign 
and transmit the same to the clerk or registrar for registra- 
tion. The person to whom the permit is so given shall there- 
after furnish for registration any other information as to the 
deceased or to the manner and cause of the death, as the clerk 
or registrar may require. Sts. 1888, ch. 306, § 2. 

DISEASED CATTLE. 

§ 1169. The boards of health of cities and towns, in case 
of the existence in this Commonwealth of the disease called 



414 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

pleuropneumonia among cattle, or farcy or glanders among 
horses, or any other contagious or infectious disease among 
domestic animals, shall cause the animals which are infected, 
or which have been exposed to infection in their respective 
cities and towns, to be secured or collected in some suitable 
place or places within their cities or towns, and kept isolated ; 
and when taken from the premises or possession of their 
owners, the expense of their maintenance shall be paid by the 
city or town wherein the animal is kept, and four-fifths of 
such payment, when certified by the treasurer of such city or 
town, shall be refunded by the Commonwealth ; such isola- 
tion to continue as long as the existence of such disease or 
other circumstances may render it necessary. 

§ 1170. They may, within their respective cities and towns, 
prohibit the departure of animals from any enclosure or ex- 
clude animals therefrom, and may appoint agents who shall 
have power to enforce the prohibitions and regulations for 
which provision is made in the two following sections. 

§ 1171. They may make regulations in writing to regulate 
or prohibit the passage from, to, or through their respective 
cities or towns, or from place to place within the same, of any 
cattle or other domestic animals, and may arrest and detain 
at the cost of the owners thereof all animals found passing in 
violation of such regulations ; and may take all other necessary 
measures for the enforcement of such prohibition, and also for 
preventing the spread of any disease among the animals of their 
respective cities and towns and the immediate vicinity thereof. 

§ 1172. Such regulations shall be recorded upon the 
records of their cities and towns respectively, and shall be 
published in such cities and towns in such manner as may be 
provided in such regulations. 

§ 1173. Any person disobeying the orders of the boards of 
health, made in conformity with § 1171 ante, or driving or 
transporting any animals contrary to the regulations made, 
published, and recorded as aforesaid, shall be punished by a 
fine not exceeding five hundred dollars, or by imprisonment 
not exceeding one year. 

§ 1174. Whoever has knowledge of, or has good reason to 
suspect the existence of a contagious disease among any 



BOARDS OF HEALTH. 415 

species of domestic animals in this state, whether such know- 
ledge is obtained by personal examination or otherwise, shall 
forthwith give notice thereof to the board of health of the city 
or town where such diseased animals are kept ; and for failure 
so to do shall be punished by a fine not exceeding five hundred 
dollars, or by imprisonment in jail not exceeding one year. 

§ 1175. The board of health of a city or town, having re- 
ceived notice of a suspected case of contagious disease among 
any of the domestic animals in their city or town, shall forth- 
with make an examination thereof personally, or by a compe- 
tent person appointed by them for that purpose, and if satisfied 
there are good reasons for believing that contagion is present, 
shall immediately inform the cattle commissioners. 

§ 1176. A city or town whose officers refuse or neglect to 
carry into effect the provisions stated in §§ 1169-1172, and in 
the preceding section, shall forfeit a sum not exceeding five 
hundred dollars for eacli day's neglect. 

§ 1177. The boards of health of cities and towns, when in 
their judgment it is necessary to carry into effect the provi- 
sions of this chapter, may within their respective cities and 
towns take and hold, for a term not exceeding one year, any 
land, without buildings other than barns thereon, upon which 
to enclose and isolate any animals ; and they shall cause the 
damage sustained by the owner in consequence of such taking 
and holding to be appraised by the assessors of the city or 
town wherein the lands so taken are situated ; and they shall 
further cause a description of such land, setting forth the 
boundaries thereof, and the area as nearly as may be esti- 
mated, together with the said appraisal, to be entered on the 
records of the city or town. The amount of said appraisement 
shall be paid as is stated in § 1169 ante, in such sums and at 
such times as the board of health may order. If the owner of 
land so taken is dissatisfied with said appraisement he may 
by action of contract recover of the city or town wherein the 
lands lie a fair compensation for the damages sustained by 
him, but no costs shall be taxed unless the damages recovered 
in such action, exclusive of interest, exceed said appraisement. 
And the Commonwealth shall reimburse to the city or town 
four-fifths of any sum recovered of it in any such action. 



416 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

§ 1178. When a board of cattle commissioners, appointed 
in accordance with the provisions of chapter three hundred 
and seventy-eight of the acts of the year eighteen hundred 
and eighty-five, is in existence, and makes and publishes any 
regulations concerning the extirpation, cure, or treatment ot 
animals infected with, or which have been exposed to, any 
contagious disease, such regulations shall supersede those 
made by boards of health, and boards of health shall carry 
out and enforce all orders and directions of said commissioners 
to them directed. Sts. 1887, ch. 252, §§ 1-10. 

§ 1179. All appraisements under these sections shall be in 
writing and signed by the appraisers and certified by the boards 
of health or commissioners, respectively, to the treasurers of 
the cities and towns where the animals are kept, and forwarded 
to the auditor of the Commonwealth. Sts. 1887, ch. 252, § 16. 



FENCE VIEWERS. 417 



CHAPTER XIV. 

FENCE VIEWERS. 

§ 1180. Fences four feet high and in good repair, consisting 
of rails, timber, boards, or stone, and brooks, rivers, ponds, 
creeks, ditches, and hedges, or other things which the fence 
viewers within whose jurisdiction the same shall lie shall con- 
sider equivalent thereto, shall be deemed legal and sufficient 
fences. Pub. Stats, ch. 36, § 1. 

§ 1181. The respective occupants of lands enclosed with 
fences shall, so long as both parties improve the same, keep 
up and maintain partition fences between their own and the 
next adjoining enclosures, in equal shares. Pub. Stats, ch. 
36, § 2. 

16 In the first place, it is to be considered that the division 
fence — that is, the whole of the division fence — is made for 
their mutual and equal benefit ; and therefore, upon the plainest 
principles of equity, the expense, as well of cost of building as 
of land to build upon, must be borne by them equally. For 
although the fence is built, one section by one party and 
another by the other, this is only an easy and convenient mode 
of dividing the expense of building. Though thus built in 
separate sections, each has an interest in the whole and in 
every section ; and, when built, it belongs beneficially to both, 
as much as if it had been done by contract and the expense 
divided, or both joined in building the whole. If it is to be, 
in all respects, for their common benefit and at their common 
expense, it follows that it is at their equal expense of land, as 
well as cost of building. As every species of fence must take 
some land, and cannot stand on a mathematical line, and as 
there is no reason why it should stand more on the land of 
one than the other, it follows as a necessary consequence that 
it is to stand equally on the land of both, or one-half on each. 
It is one of the cases where equality is equity." Shaw, C. J. 
in Newell v. Hill, 2 Met. 182. 

27 



418 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

This rule as to division fence between adjoining proprietors 
does not apply as between the public and the owner of land 
abutting upon a highway, no such mutual duty or obligation 
existing ; and therefore there can be no corresponding right 
or privilege. Holbrook v. McBride, 4 Gray, 215. 

A reasonable quantity of land can be taken for building such 
fence upon. And it is to be determined by a just regard to 
the proper accomplishment of the purpose which both parties 
have in view, and in which they have a common interest. 
And great regard should be had to the usage and practice of 
men of ordinary skill and judgment in the building of fences 
in their own lands on similar kinds of soil, and for like pur- 
poses. Newell v. Hill, 2 Met. 183. 

§ 1182. If a party refuses or neglects to repair or rebuild 
a partition fence which he ought to maintain, the aggrieved 
party may complain to two or more fence viewers of the place, 
who after due notice to each party shall survey the same, and 
if they determine that the fence is insufficient, and that a par- 
tition fence is required between the lands of the respective 
occupants, they shall signify the same in writing to the delin- 
quent occupant, and direct him to repair or rebuild the same 
within such time, not exceeding fifteen days, as they may 
judge reasonable ; and if the fence is not repaired or rebuilt 
accordingly, the complainant may make or repair the same. 
Pub. Stats, ch. 36, § 3. 

§ 1183. When a deficient fence built up or repaired by a 
complainant as provided in the preceding section is, after due 
notice to each party, adjudged sufficient by two or more of the 
fence viewers, and the value thereof with their fees ascertained 
by a certificate under their hands, the complainant may de- 
mand, either of the occupant or owner of the land where the 
fence was deficient, double the sum so ascertained ; and in 
case of neglect or refusal to pay the same for one month after 
demand, he may recover the same, with interest at one per cent 
a month, in an action of contract. Pub. Stats, ch. 36, § 4. 

No action lies to recover upon an award of fence viewers 
under this and the preceding section, unless they have pre- 
viously adjudicated that the existing fence was insufficient and 
illegal, and that the fence which the plaintiff has rebuilt is 
sufficient. Sears v. Charlemont, 6 Allen, 437. 



FENCE VIEWERS. 419 

An action to recover double the value of a partition fence, 
rebuilt bj the plaintiff, and double the amount of the fees of 
the fence viewers for their services in relation thereto, cannot 
be maintained, unless the fence is built upon the line which 
divides the premises of the parties, if this is known and un- 
disputed ; and in the absence of any adjudication of the fence 
viewers designating the line upon which the fence should be 
built, the line adopted by the plaintiff is not conclusively 
binding upon the defendant. Kennedy v. Owen, 131 Mass. 
431. 

The remedy provided by this section for enforcing payment 
of an award of fence viewers is applicable only to a case 
where the duty of maintaining the fence is required by statute, 
and does not apply to a case where such duty arises from the 
acceptance of a deed containing a condition to maintain it. 
Kennedy v. Owen, 134 Mass. 227. 

§ 1184. When a controversy arises concerning the rights 
of the respective occupants in partition fences and their obliga- 
tion to maintain the same, either party may apply to two or 
more fence viewers of the places where the lands lie, who 
after due notice to each party may in writing assign to each 
his share thereof, and may direct the time within which each 
party shall erect or repair his share, in the manner before 
provided ; which assignment, being recorded in the city or 
town clerk's office, shall be binding upon the parties and upon 
the succeeding occupants of the lands, who shall thereafter 
maintain their respective parts of said fence. Pub. Stats, cfe. 
36, § 5. 

A division by fence viewers would ordinarily embrace the 
whole continuous line of fence between two adjacent proprie- 
tors. But a division may be legal, although the assignment 
to the parties does not include the entire line of the land of 
the adjacent owner. Alger v. Pool, 11 Cush. 450. 

Under a complaint that a fence is out of repair, fence viewers 
have no authority to assign to each of the owners of adjoining 
land his respective share of the fence, and to direct the build- 
ing thereof within a specified time. Sears v. Charlemont, 6 
Allen, 437. 

§ 1185. If a party refuses or neglects to erect and main- 



420 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

tain the part of a fence assigned to him by the fence viewers, 
the same may, in the manner before provided, be erected and 
maintained, by any aggrieved party ; and he shall be entitled 
to double the value thereof, ascertained and recovered in the 
manner aforesaid. 

§ 1186. When, in a controversy between adjoining occu- 
pants as to their respective rights in a partition fence, it 
appears to the fence viewers that a partition fence is required 
between their lands, and that either of the occupants had, 
before any complaint made to them, voluntarily erected the 
whole fence, or more than his just share of the same, or had 
otherwise become proprietor thereof, the other occupant shall 
pay the value of so much thereof as may be assigned to him 
to repair or maintain, to be ascertained and recovered as pro- 
vided in this chapter. 

§ 1187. Partition fences shall be kept in good repair 
throughout the year, unless the occupants of the lands on 
both sides otherwise agree. 

§ 1188. When lands of different persons, which are re- 
quired to be fenced, are bounded upon or divided from each 
other by a river, brook, pond, or creek, if the occupant of the 
land on one side refuses or neglects to join with the occupant 
of the land on the other side in making a partition fence on 
the one side or the other, or disagrees respecting the same, 
then two or more fence viewers of the place or places wherein 
such lands lie, on application made to them, shall forthwith 
view such river, brook, pond, or creek ; and if they determine 
the same not to answer the purpose of a sufficient fence, and 
that it is impracticable to fence on the true boundary line 
without unreasonable expense, and that a partition fence is 
required between the lands of the respective occupants, they 
shall, after giving notice to the parties to be present, deter- 
mine how, or on which side thereof, the fence shall be set up 
and maintained, or whether partly on the one side and partly 
on the other, as to them shall appear just, and shall reduce 
their determination to w r riting ; and if either of the parties 
refuses or neglects to make and maintain his part of the fence 
according to the determination of the fence viewers, the same 
may be made and maintained as before provided, and the 



FENCE VIEWERS. 421 

delinquent party shall be subject to the same costs and 
charges, to be recovered in like manner. 

§ 1189. When lands belonging to two persons in severalty 
have been occupied in common without a partition fence be- 
tween them, and one of the occupants desires to occupy his 
part in severalty, and the other occupant refuses or neglects 
on demand to divide the line where the fence ought to be 
built, or to build a sufficient fence on his part of the line when 
divided, the party desiring it may, if a partition fence is re- 
quired between the lands of the respective occupants, have 
the same divided and assigned by two or more fence viewers 
of the same place, in the manner provided in this chapter ; 
and the fence viewers may in writing assign a reasonable 
time, having regard to the season of the year for making the 
fence ; and if the occupant complained of does not make his 
part of the fence within the time so assigned, the other party 
may, after having made up his part of the fence, make up the 
part of such occupant, and recover therefor double the expense 
thereof, together with the fees of the fence viewers, in the 
manner provided in this chapter. 

§ 1190. Where a division of fence between the owners of 
improved lands has been made, either by fence viewers or 
under an agreement in writing between the parties, recorded 
in the office of the clerk of the city or town, the several 
owners of such lands, and their heirs and assigns, shall erect 
and support said fences agreeably to such division ; but if a 
person lays his lands common, and determines not to improve 
any part of the same adjoining the fence divided as aforesaid, 
and gives six months' notice of his determination to all the 
adjoining occupants of lands, he shall not be required to keep 
up or support said fence during the time that his lands lie 
common and unimproved. 

§ 1191. When one party ceases to improve his land, or 
lays open his enclosure, he shall not take away any part of 
the partition fence belonging to him and adjoining to the 
next enclosure : provided, the owner or occupant thereof will 
allow and pay therefor so much as two or more fence viewers 
in writing determine to be the reasonable value thereof. 

§ 1192. When land which has lain unenclosed is after- 



422 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

wards enclosed or used for depasturing, the occupant or owner 
thereof shall pay for one half of each partition fence standing 
upon the line between the same land and the land of the 
enclosures of any other occupant or owner, the value thereof 
to be ascertained in writing (in case the parties do not agree 
between themselves) by two or more of the fence viewers of 
the same place wherein such partition fence stands ; and 
if such occupant or owner, after the value has been so ascer- 
tained, neglects or refuses, for thirty days after demand made, 
to pay for one half of the partition fence, the proprietor of 
the fence may maintain an action of contract for such value, 
and for the costs of ascertaining the same ; but the occupant 
or owner of unenclosed land on the island of Nantucket, used 
for depasturing only, shall not be subject to the foregoing 
provisions of this section. 

§ 1193. Fence viewers, when called to act under the pro- 
visions of this chapter, may determine whether a partition 
fence is required between the lands of the respective occu- 
pants, and may, when the division line between their lands 
is in dispute, or unknown, designate a line on which the 
fence shall be built, and may employ a surveyor therefor, if 
necessary ; and such line shall, for the purpose of maintain- 
ing a fence, be deemed the division line between such lands, 
until it shall be determined by judicial proceedings, or other- 
wise, that the true line is in another place, and, until so 
determined, all provisions of law relating to the erection, 
maintenance, and protection of fences shall be applicable to 
the fence erected, or to be erected, on such line. Pub. Stats, 
ch. 36, §§ 6-14. 

§ 1194. If, after a fence has been made upon a line thus 
designated, it is determined by judicial proceedings, or other- 
wise, that the true division line is in another place, each 
occupant shall remove his part of the fence to, and rebuild 
the same on, such line ; and in case of neglect or refusal by 
either party to remove and rebuild his share thereof, the 
other may apply to two or more fence viewers, who, upon 
such application, shall view the premises and assign a time 
within which the fence shall be removed and rebuilt, and shall 
give the delinquent party notice thereof ; and if such party does 



FENCE VIEWERS. 423 

not remove and rebuild the fence within the time so assigned, 
the other party may remove and rebuild the same, and recover 
double the expense thereof, together with the fees of the fence 
viewers, to be ascertained and recovered in the manner stated 
in § 1183, ante. Pub. Stats, ch. 36, § 15. 

The line designated by the fence viewers for a fence under 
the provisions of this and the preceding section has no effect 
upon the title or right of possession of the land. It is a line 
established only for the purpose of maintaining a fence. 
Currier v. JEsty, 116 Mass. 577. 

§ 1195. Where the line upon which a partition fence is to 
be made or divided is the boundary line of one or more cities 
or towns, or partly in one and partly in another, a fence viewer 
shall be taken from each place. 

§ 1196. When a water fence, or fence running into the 
water, is necessary to be made, the same shall be done in 
equal shares unless otherwise agreed by the parties ; and in 
case either party refuses or neglects to make or maintain the 
share to him belonging, similar proceedings shall be had as in 
other cases of the like kind respecting other fences before 
mentioned. 

§ 1197. Any fence viewer, duly chosen and sworn, who, 
when requested, unreasonably neglects to view a fence, or to 
perform any other duties required of him in this chapter, shall 
forfeit five dollars, to be recovered by action of tort to the use 
of the place, or on complaint to the use of the Commonwealth, 
and he shall also be liable for all damages to the party injured. 

§ 1198. Each fence viewer shall be paid at the rate of two 
dollars per day for the time he is employed. Such payment 
shall be made by all or by such of the parties in dispute, and 
in such proportions, as shall be determined by a certificate in 
writing, under the hands of the fence viewers, acting in each 
case. And if any person or persons, so required to pay the 
whole or any portion of said fees, neglect to pay the fence 
viewers within thirty days after the certificate has been de- 
livered, the fence viewers, may recover-, in an action of tort, 
double the amount of the fees due from such delinquent party. 
Pub. Stats, ch. 36, §§ 16-19. 



424 THE TOWN OFFICER. 



FORMS. 

Complaint to the Fence Viewers by the Owner of Land that the 
Fence between his Land and the adjoining is insufficient. 

To A. B. and C. D., two fence viewers of the town of W . 

The partition fence between my land and that of G. K., situated in 

W , on the road leading from to which he ought to 

maintain, is insufficient. I hereby request you to survey the same, 
and direct him to repair or rebuild it. 

N. O. 

W , 189 . 

Notice to Adverse Party in above Complaint. 

To G. K., of W . N. O., of said W , has complained to 

us, two fence viewers of said W , that the partition fence be- 
tween your land and his adjoining situated in W , on the road 

leading from to is insufficient, and has requested us to 

survey the said fence and direct you to repair the same. You are 
notified that we shall make the survey on Monday next at nine 
o'clock, A. M. 

P. R. 



W , 189 



; :} 



« T i Fence Viewers. 



Award of Fence Viewers. 

To G. K., of W . We, having surveyed the partition fence 

between your land and that of N. O., situated in said W , on 

the road leading from to which you ought to maintain, 

and having found said fence out of repair and insufficient, hereby 
direct you to repair or rebuild said fence in daj s from the 

date hereof. 

P. R. ) Fence Viewers of the 

S. T. j town of W . 

W , 189 . 

Certificate of the Sufficiency and Appraisal of Fence built by the 
Complainant when the Occupa?it of the adjoining Lot has 
neglected to comply with the Directions of the Fence Viewers. 

We hereby certif}' that we surveyed a certain partition fence be- 
tween the land of N. O. and G. K., situated in said W , on the 

road leading from to and adjudged the same to be in- 



FENCE VIEWERS. 425 

sufficient and illegal, and did order and direct that the said G. K 
should repair and build the same within days from the 

date of said order, and the said G. K. not having complied with 
said order, the said N. O. at his own proper costs and charges has 
repaired and rebuilt the same, and we now adjudge the same to be 
sufficient, and appraise the said fence at the sum of dollars. 

And we certify that our fees for that service are as follows : — 

For viewing said fence, $ 

For appraising the same, $ 
Paid us by the said N. O., 

P R ) 

«' ry > Fence Viewers of W- . 

W , 189 . 

Notice of Fence Viewers when the right of Occupants in Partition 
Fence is in dispute, and their Award. 

To of . M. N. has represented to us, two fence viewers 

of the town of W , that a controversy has arisen between him 

and you about 3-our respective rights in the partition fence between 
3'our land and his (or the land occupied by him and you as 

the fact may be), situated and has applied to us on that account ; 
we therefore hereby notify 3-011 that we shall be at the premises on 
the day of at o'clock in the noon, to 

assign to each party his share of said fence. 

-»V q" > Fence Viewers. 

Dated 189 . 

Whereas a controversy has arisen between A. B. and C. D. of 
about their respective rights in a partition fence in the line between 
their lands situated at we the subscribers, fence viewers of 

the town of W , having, on the application of the said A. B. 

(and after having given due notice to the said C. D.), viewed the 
premises and clufy considered the matter in dispute, do hereb3* as- 
sign to each of the said parties his share of said fence, as follows, 
viz. : — 

The said A. B. shall build and keep in repair a good and sufficient 
fence from to And the said C. D. shall build and keep 

in repair a like fence on the other part of said line, viz. , from 
to And each paily is to erect (or repair) his part of said fence 

within days from the date hereof. 

Given under our hands at said W , this dav of 

189 . 

H. IS 
N. 



q' > Fence Viewers. 



426 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

Notice issued by Fence Viewers when Lands are divided by 
a Brook, River, Pond, <£c; and their Determination in 
such Case. 

To of A. B. of has represented to us, two fence 

viewers of the town of B , that 3-011 refuse to join with him {or 

that 3'ou and he disagree, as the fact may be) in making a partition 
fence between your land and his {or between the lands occupied by 
him and you), the same being bounded or divided by a pond {river, 
brook, &c, as the fact may be), and has therefore made application 
to us to view the same and determine thereupon. We therefore 
hereby notify you that we shall make such view and determination 
on the day of at o'clock. 

H. N. ) Fence Viewers of the 
M. P. \ town ofB d. 

Dated the day of 189 . 

Whereas it has been represented to us, two fence viewers of the 

town of B , by A. B. of whose land is bounded or divided 

from the land of C. D. {or occupied by C. D.), that the said C. D. 
hath refused to join with him {or that they disagreed in making a 
partition fence, as the fact may be), and the said A. B. having 
applied to us to view the same and determine thereupon, we have, 
after giving due notice to the said C. D., performed that duty, and 
do determine that the said pond {river, brook, or creek, as the fact 
may be) does not answer the purpose of a sufficient fence, and 
that it is impracticable to fence at the boundary line. We there- 
fore determine that said fence shall be set up as follows, viz. 
And that the said A. B. shall build and maintain and the 

said C. D. shall build and maintain 

Given under our hands this day of 189 . 

M ' p* >• Fence Viewers. 



FIELD DRIVERS AND POUND KEEPERS. 427 

CHAPTER XV. 

FIELD DRIVERS AND POUND KEEPERS. 

FIELD DRIVERS. 

§ 1199. Every field driver, within his city or town, shall 
take up, at any time, swine, sheep, horses, asses, mules, goats, 
or neat cattle, going at large in the public highways or town 
ways, or on common and unimproved lands, and not under 
the care of a keeper; and for any such cattle or beasts so 
going at large on the Lord's day, the field driver or any other 
inhabitant of the city or town may, in an action of tort, recover 
for each beast the same fees which the field driver is entitled 
to receive for like beasts when distrained and impounded. 
Pub. Stats, ch. 36, § 23. 

The duty of the field driver, under the last section, is con- 
fined to the taking up of cattle going at large, and impounding 
them. And he is not required to state the cause of such acts, 
has no claim for any damage, and can demand only his fees, 
which are provided by statute. No notice is required by the 
statute to be given at the time of impounding by the field 
driver, as it seems to be taken for granted that the pound 
keeper will be bound to take notice of the public office, power, 
and duty of the field driver in the performance of his duties 
under the statute. Wild v. Skinner, 23 Pick. 251 ; Pickard 
v. Howe, 12 Met. 198. 

A turnpike road is a highway within the meaning of the 
statute restraining cattle from going at large. Pickard v. 
Howe, 12 Met. 198. 

The owner of land adjoining a highway, and who owns to 
the centre thereof, has a right to depasture his land in the 
highway ; but he cannot, in virtue of this right, be exempted 
from the duty of preventing his cattle from going at large 
thereon without the care of a keeper, but is bound by the 
same law which is applicable to others. Parker v. Jones, 
1 Allen, 270. 



428 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

Cattle must be " actually under the efficient care of a 
keeper " while upon the highways, or they will be " going at 
large," and may be impounded by a field driver. Bruce v. 
White, 4 Gray, 345. 

The mere driving of cows off a person's land into the high- 
way, and detaining them there until the owner comes and 
takes them away, and then demanding a sum of money as 
damages is not as a matter of law an impounding of the cows. 
Conners v. Loker, 134 Mass. 510. 

§ 1200. Beasts so taken up and distrained by a field driver 
shall be forthwith impounded in the city or town pound, and 
the keeper shall furnish them with suitable food and water 
while they are detained in his custody. Pub. Stats, ch. 36, 
§ 24. 

§ 1201. When a person is injured in his land by sheep, 
swine, horses, asses, mules, goats, or neat cattle, he may 
recover his damages in an action of tort against the owner of 
the beasts, or by distraining the beasts doing the damage, and 
proceeding therewith as hereinafter directed ; but if the beasts 
were lawfully on the adjoining lands, and escape therefrom in 
consequence of the neglect of the person who suffered the 
damage to maintain his part of the division fence, the owner 
of the beasts shall not be liable for such damage. Pub. Stats. 
ch. 36, § 27. 

A field driver cannot at the same time distrain and impound 
cattle for both causes prescribed by these sections, — for going 
at large in the highway without a keeper and for doing 
damage on private lands. Phillips v. Bristol, 131 Mass. 426. 

The restriction in the foregoing section upon the right to 
maintain an action clearly applies, and applies only, to cases 
where there has been a division of the fence. It is when the 
party neglects to maintain " his part of the division fence ; " 
but it cannot with propriety be said that any particular part of 
the fence is to be kept in repair by one rather than the other 
until a division has taken place. Thayer v. Arnold, 4 Met. 589. 

Tf beasts doing damage are distrained, and driven to the 
distrainer's yard till the pound keeper can be called, and then 
delivered to the latter in the highway, it is the duty of the 
distrainer to state his demand, and to give notices, as required 



FIELD DRIVERS AND POUND KEEPERS. 429 

in §§ 30 and 32, Pub. Stats, ch. 36 • otherwise he will be liable 
as a trespasser ab initio. Merrick v. Work, 10 Allen, 544 ; Sher- 
man v. Braman, 13 Met. 407. 

§ 1202. The beasts so distrained for doing damage shall 
be impounded in the city or town pound, or in some suitable 
place, under the immediate care and inspection of the person 
who distrained them, and he shall furnish them with suitable 
food and water while they remain impounded. Pub. Stats. 
ch. 36, § 28. 

FORMS. 

Notice to Owner of Beasts taken up and impounded. 

To A. B., of B cl. I have this day taken up and impounded 

in the town pound in said town, under the care of C. D., pound- 
keeper, one pair of red oxen belonging to t you, found doing damage 
in the enclosure of E. F. (or running at large without a keeper on 
the public highway in said town), and for that cause I have 
impounded said oxen. 

O. P., Field Driver of B d. 

B d, June 189 . 

31emorandum to be left with Pound Keeper. 

To C. D., keeper of the town pound in the town of B- d. I 

have this day taken up and distrained one ba\ r horse, belonging to 

E. F. of said B d, found doing damage in my enclosure, and 

for that reason I have impounded said horse in the town pound 
under your care. 

The damages demanded are, $ 

Charges for keeping per day, $ 

G. H. 

B d, June 189 . 

POUND KEEPERS. 

§ 1203. Each city and town shall, at its own expense and 
in such places therein as the city council of the city or the 
inhabitants of the town direct, maintain one or more sufficient 
pounds. A city or town which for three months neglects to pro- 
vide or maintain a sufficient pound shall forfeit fifty dollars. 

§ 1204. Each city and town shall annually appoint a suitable 
keeper of each pound therein. Pub. Stats, ch. 36, §§ 20, 22. 



430 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

§ 1205. When beasts are taken up and distrained by a field 
driver, in a town which has adopted the provisions of chapter 
' three hundred and sixty-six of the statutes of the year eighteen 
hundred and sixty-nine, or of this section, he may impound 
them in any suitable place, on his own premises ; and for the 
purposes of this chapter he shall be considered a pound keeper, 
and such place on his own premises shall be considered a town 
pound, in relation to beasts therein impounded. Pub. Stats. 
ch. 36, § 29. 

To " forthwith impound " is to impound without unnecessary 
delay. The act of impounding by the field driver does not 
require that he should open or close a gate. The pound is 
under the care and in the custody of a keeper elected for the 
purpose. Byron v. Crippen, 4 Gray, 312. 

A pound keeper may lawfully impound beasts which have 
been distrained damage feasant in a yard furnished and used 
by the town as a town pound, if the town have furnished and 
used no other place as a pound, although the inhabitants of 
the town have passed no vote concerning the same, and taken 
no action at any town meeting for the purpose of establishing 
it as a pound. Anthony v. Anthony, 6 Allen, 408. 

§ 1206. The field driver shall be entitled to fifty cents per 
head for horses, asses, mules, swine, and neat cattle, and ten 
cents per head for sheep and goats so taken up by him, and 
the pound keeper shall be entitled to four cents per head for 
the animals so impounded ; but if more than ten sheep are 
taken up at the same time, the fees for all above that number 
shall be only one half of the above fees. 

§ 1207. The pound keeper shall not deliver to the owner 
any beasts so impounded, until the owner pays him his fees, 
the expense of keeping the beasts, and the fees of the field 
driver, which latter, when received, he shall pay to the field 
driver. Pub. Stats, ch. 36, §§ 25, 26. 

§ 1208. If the beasts are impounded in the city or town 
pound, the distrainer shall leave with the pound keeper a 
memorandum in writing under his hand, stating the cause of 
impounding, and the sum that he demands from the owner for 
the damage done by the beasts, and also for the daily charges 
of feeding them ; and if they are impounded in any other 



FIELD DRIVERS AND POUND KEEPERS. 431 

place, he shall give a like memorandum to the owner of the 
beasts if demanded by him. Pub. Stats, ch. 36, § 80. 

The owner of the laud where the damage is committed is 
not required to employ a field driver to take up and impound 
the cattle, but he may do it himself. Wild v. Skinner, 23 
Pick. 253. 

§ 1209. The pound keeper, when the beasts are in his cus- 
tody, shall not deliver them to the owner until the owner pays 
him his fees, the sum so demanded by the distrainer for the 
damages and charges aforesaid, the expense of advertising the 
beasts if they are advertised, and all other legal costs and 
expenses. Pub. Stats, ch. 36, § 31. 

A pound keeper, who receives and impounds beasts for 
going at large, and refuses to deliver them to the owner on 
demand, is justified in his refusal until his fees and those of 
the field drivers are paid. And he is not liable therefor in 
an action of replevin. Folger v. Hinckley, 5 Cush. 263. 

§ 1210. When beasts are impounded, the person impound- 
ing them shall within twenty-four hours thereafter give notice 
thereof in writing to the owner or person having the care 
of them, if known and living within six miles from the place 
of impounding, which notice shall be delivered to the party or 
left at his place of abode, and shall contain a description of 
the beasts, and a statement of the time, place, and cause of 
impounding. Pub. Stats, ch. 36, § 32. 

Such notice must be given within twenty -four hours after 
the beasts are taken up and impounded ; and the notice is 
valid, although the hour of the day on which they were thus 
taken up does not appear on the face of it. It is sufficient if 
it is left at the dwelling-house of the party ; and a personal 
service of it upon the owner of the beasts is not required. 
Pickard v. Hoive, 12 Met, 198. 

An oral notice is not sufficient ; and the owners of the beasts 
impounded have a right to insist on the precise notice required 
by law. Upon it their rights and remedies might materially 
depend ; and unless by their actions the persons impounding 
the beasts are induced to omit it, the failure to give such 
notice is a fatal defect in their proceedings, and deprives them 
of their justification. 



432 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

Neither is the notice rendered unnecessary where the owners 
of the beasts impounded have actual knowledge of it. Coffin 
v. Field, 7 Cush. 355 ; Sanderson v. Lawrence, 2 Gray, 178. 

If one cause of the impounding of cattle by a field driver is 
the damage done by them to the land of A, a notice by the 
field driver to the owner of the cattle, describing them and 
stating that they were impounded " for being at large out of 
enclosure in the highway, said cattle being delivered to me in 
said highway by the agent of A," and that the damage to A, 
together with the fees of the field driver and pound keeper, 
amounted to a certain sum, is not a sufficient notice. Phillips 
v. Bristol, 131 Mass. 426. 

A written notice, posted up and published in a newspaper 
by a field driver who has impounded beasts going at large in 
a public highway, which states that the beasts were "going at 
large, and without a keeper," sets forth a sufficient cause of 
impounding under the statute. 

" There are hut two causes for which animals can lawfully 
be taken up by a field driver and impounded in the town 
pound. He may take them up, in the first place, when they 
are at large without a keeper in highways or town ways, or 
on common and unimproved land ; or, in the second place, as 
the agent of a private proprietor other than the owner, when 
they are unlawfully upon his enclosed or improved land, doing 
or having done damage there. In either of these cases the 
animals may be impounded, and then the notices required by 
law are to be given, containing a description of the animals, 
and a statement of the time, place, and cause of impounding. 
It is not essential to the validity of the notices to be given that 
they should be framed in the very words of the statute ; but 
any form of expression which evinces in a clear and intelligible 
manner the cause for which the animals -were taken up and 
impounded is sufficient." Merrick, J., in Cleverly v. Fowle, 
3 Allen, 39. 

§ 1211. If there is no person entitled to notice according 
to the provisions of the preceding section, the person impound- 
ing the beasts shall within forty-eight hours thereafter cause 
to be posted in some public place in the city or town, and in 
a public place in each of any two adjoining cities or towns, 



FIELD DRIVERS AND POUND KEEPERS. 433 

if within four miles from the place where they were taken, a 
written notice containing a description of the beasts, and a 
statement of the time, place, and cause of impounding them ; 
and in such case, if the value of the beasts exceeds thirty 
dollars, and if no person appears to claim them within seven 
days after the day of impounding, a like notice shall be pub- 
lished three weeks successively in some public newspaper, if 
there is any published within twenty miles from the place of 
impounding, the first publication to be within fifteen days 
after the day of impounding. 

§ 1212. If the owner or keeper of the beasts is dissatisfied 
with the claim of the person impounding them, he may have 
the amount for which he is liable ascertained and determined 
by two disinterested and discreet persons, to be appointed and 
sworn for that purpose by a justice of the peace or by the city 
or town clerk ; and the sum so determined by them shall be 
received instead of the sum demanded by the person who 
impounded the beasts, and they shall thereupon be delivered 
to the owner or keeper thereof. 

§ 1213. If the sum for which the beasts are impounded and 
detained is not paid within fourteen days after notice of the 
impounding has been given as before directed, or after the 
last publication of such notice in a newspaper, the person who 
impounded them shall apply to a justice of the peace, or to 
the city or town clerk, and obtain a warrant to two disin- 
terested ana discreet persons, to be appointed and sworn by • 
the justice or clerk, and the person so appointed shall ascer- 
tain and determine the sum due from the owner or keeper of 
the beasts for the damages, costs, and expenses for which they 
are impounded and detained, including a reasonable compen- 
sation for their own services. 

§ 1214. If the sum so found to be due is not forthwith 
paid, the person who impounded the beasts shall cause them 
to be sold by auction, in the city or town where they are 
impounded, first advertising the sale by posting up a notice 
thereof twenty-four hours beforehand at some public place in 
the same city or town. 

§ 1215. The proceeds of such sale, after paying all said 
damages, costs, expenses, and charges for advertising and 

28 



434 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

selling the beasts, shall be deposited in the treasury of the 
city or town, for the use of the owner of the beasts, in case 
he substantiates his claim thereto within two years from the 
sale. 

§ 1216. If beasts lawfully distrained or impounded escape 
or are rescued, the pound keeper, field driver, or other person 
who distrained them may at any time within seven days 
thereafter retake the beasts, and hold and dispose thereof as 
if no such escape or rescue had taken place. Pub. Stats, ch. 
36, §§ 33-38. 

FORM. 

Appointment of Persons to determine Damages done by Beasts 
taken up and impounded. 

To A. B. and C. D. of B . You are hereby appointed to 

appraise, on oath, the damage done to the enclosure of E. F. by 
a pair of red oxen, which for that cause have been taken up and 
impounded in the town pound. 

B , this day of 189 . 

J. H., Clerk of the town ofB . 

If the appointment is made at the request of the person impound- 
ing, add to the foregoing, "Also the costs and expenses of im- 
pounding, etc., including a reasonable compensation for your own 
services." 



SEALERS OF WEIGHTS AND MEASURES. 435 



CHAPTER XVI. 

SEALERS OF WEIGHTS AND MEASURES. 

§ 1217. The city council of every city, and the selectmen 
of every town, shall annually in March or April appoint one or 
more sealers of weights and measures, or one sealer and one 
or more deputy sealers to act under the direction of the sealer, 
and they may also appoint gaugers of liquid measures ; and 
such sealers, deputy sealers, and gaugers they may at any 
time remove, and appoint others in their places. Pub. Stats. 
ch. 65, § 8. 

§ 1218. The standard weights, measures, and balances 
which shall be kept by the counties, cities, and towns of the 
Commonwealth, except as hereinafter provided, shall be the 
following : A set of avoirdupois-weights, consisting of fifty, 
twenty-five, twenty, ten, five, four, two, and one pounds ; and 
eight, four, two, one, one-half, one-fourth, one-eighth, and one- 
sixteenth ounces. One balance. A set of dry measures, con- 
sisting of one half-bushel, one eight-quart, one four-quart, one 
two-quart, and one one-quart measures. A set of liquid 
measures, consisting of one wine gallon, one wine half-gallon, 
one wine quart, one wine pint, one wine half-pint, and one 
wine gill. One yard measure. 

§ 1219. Any county, city, or town which has not received 
from the Commonwealth a complete set of the standard 
weights, measures, and balances, as provided in the preceding 
section, shall at once make application to the treasurer and 
receiver-general for the weights, measures, and balances which 
such county, city, or town has not received, and the same shall 
be furnished to such county, city, or town at the expense of 
the Commonwealth. Sts. 1890, ch. 426, §§1,3. 

§ 1220. In addition to the standards mentioned above, 
each shire town, and each city not a shire town, shall keep the 



436 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

metre and kilogram, and also such standard troy-weights as 
the treasurer and receiver-general may designate. And all 
persons selling anything by troy-weight shall have their 
weights and balances which are used for this purpose duly 
tested and sealed by an authorized sealer having the proper 
standards. Sts. 1890, ch. 426, § 2. 

§ 1221. The several county, city, and town treasurers 
shall, at the expense of their respective counties, cities, and 
towns, provide therein places for the safe and suitable keeping 
and preservation of the weights, measures, and balances 
furnished by the Commonwealth, which shall be used only as 
standards. Said treasurers shall have the care and oversight 
thereof ; shall see that they are kept in good order and repair ; 
and if any of them are lost, destroyed, or irreparably damaged, 
shall, at the expense of the county, city, or town, replace the 
same by similar weights, measures, or balances. Cities and 
towns may effect insurance on such weights, measures, and 
balances for their own benefit. Pub. Stats, ch. 65, § 5. 

§ 1222. It shall hereafter be the duty of the several city 
and town treasurers to have the standards in their custody 
tried, adjusted, and sealed once at least in every five years, 
and it shall be the duty of the deputy sealer to try, adjust, and 
seal the weights, measures, and balances of every city and 
town, at least once in five years, and to see that they are kept 
in proper condition and order. And at any time, at the 
request of a city or town treasurer, the deputy shall visit such 
city or town, and try, adjust, and seal its standards. Sts. 
1890, ch. 426, § 6. 

§ 1223. Every sealer of weights and measures shall receive 
from the treasurer of his city or town a set of the standards 
and a seal, and shall give a receipt therefor, expressing the 
condition in which the same are ; and he shall be accountable 
to his city or town for the due preservation of the same in the 
like condition until he redelivers them to the treasurer. 

§ 1224. When a city or town votes to have more than one 
sealer of weights and measures, the treasurer of such city or 
town shall at its expense procure and preserve the necessary 
additional seals, weights, and measures before specified, so 
that each sealer may have a complete set of the same. 



SEALERS OF WEIGHTS AND MEASURES. 437 

§ 1225. The treasurer of the Commonwealth and his 
deputy, the county treasurers, and the city and town sealers, 
shall each keep a seal for his several use. The seals of the 
treasurer and of his deputy shall bear the letters C. M. ; those 
of county treasurers shall bear the initial and final letters of 
their respective counties, followed by the letters Co. ; and 
those of city and town sealers, the name of their respective 
cities or towns, or such intelligible abbreviation thereof as the 
mayor and aldermen or selectmen may prescribe. Any such 
treasurer or sealer who neglects to keep a seal according to 
the provisions of this section shall forfeit a sum not exceeding 
twenty dollars. 

§ 1226. The sealers of weights and measures in the several 
cities and towns shall annually give public notice by adver- 
tisement, or by posting in one or more public places in their 
respective cities and towns notices to all inhabitants or persons 
having usual places of business therein, and who use weights, 
measures, or balances for the purpose of selling any goods, 
wares, merchandise, or other commodities, or for public 
weighing, to bring in their weights, measures, and balances 
to be adjusted and sealed. Such sealers shall attend in one 
or more convenient places, and shall adjust, seal, and record 
all weights, measures, and balances so brought in. 

§ 1227. After giving said notice, the said sealers shall go 
to the houses, stores, and shops of persons who neglect to 
comply therewith, and, having entered the same with the 
assent of the occupants thereof, shall adjust and seal their 
weights, measures, and balances. 

§ 1228. Said sealers shall go once a year, and oftener if 
necessary, to every hay and coal scale, and to every platform 
balance within their respective cities and towns that cannot 
be easily or conveniently removed, and shall test the accuracy 
of, and adjust and seal, the same. 

§ 1229. All persons using any scales, weights, or measures 
for the purpose of buying or selling any commodity may, 
when they desire it, have the same tested and sealed by the 
sealers of weights and measures at the office of any of said 
sealers. 

§ 1230. In case a sealer of weights and measures cannot 



438 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

seal any weights, measures, and balances in the manner 
before provided, he may mark them with a stencil, or by other 
suitable means, so as to show that they have been inspected ; 
but he shall in no case seal or mark as correct any weights, 
measures, or balances which do not conform to the standards. 
If such weights, measures, or balances can be readily adjusted 
by such means as he has at hand, he may adjust and seal 
them ; but if they cannot be readily adjusted, he shall affix 
to such weights, measures, or balances a notice forbidding 
their use until he is satisfied that they have been so adjusted 
as to conform to the standards ; and whoever removes said 
notice without the consent of the officer affixing the same 
shall for each offence forfeit a sum not exceeding fifty dol- 
lars, one half to the use of the city or town, and one half to 
the use of the complainant. 

§ 1231. A sealer or his deputy, when visiting the place of 
business of any person for the purpose of testing any weights, 
measures, or balances, may use for that purpose such weights, 
measures, or balances as he can conveniently carry with him ; 
and each city and town shall furnish its sealer with one or 
more duplicate sets of weights, measures, and balances, which 
shall at all times be kept to conform to the standards fur- 
nished by the Commonwealth ; and all weights, measures 
and balances so sealed shall be deemed to be legally sealed, 
the same as if tested and sealed with the standard weights, 
measures, and balances. 

§ 1232. A sealer or deputy sealer of weights and measures 
may seize without a warrant such weights, measures, or bal- 
ances as may be necessary to be used as evidence in cases of 
violation of the law relating to the sealing of weights and 
measures, such weights, measures, or balances to be returned 
to the owners, or forfeited, as the court may direct. 

§ 1233. When a complaint is made to a sealer of weights 
and measures, by any person, that he has reasonable cause to 
believe, or when such sealer himself has reasonable cause to 
believe, that a weight, measure, or balance used in the sale 
of any commodity within his city or town is incorrect, the 
said sealer shall go to the place where such weight, measure, 
or balance is, and shall test the same and mark it according 



SEALERS OF WEIGHTS AND MEASURES. 439 

to the result of the test applied thereto ; and if the same is 
incorrect and cannot be adjusted, the said sealer shall attach 
a notice thereto certifying that fact, and forbidding the use 
thereof until it has been made to conform to the authorized 
standard. Any person using a weight, measure, or balance 
after a sealer has demanded permission to test the same and 
has been refused such permission, shall be liable to a penalty 
of not less than ten nor more than one hundred dollars. 

§ 1234. All weights, measures, and balances that cannot 
be made to conform to the standard shall be stamped " con- 
demned," or " CD.," by the sealer ; and no person shall there- 
after use the same for weighing or measuring any commodity 
sold or exchanged under the penalties provided in the case 
of the use of false weights and measures. 

§ 1235. If a person knowingly uses a false weight, meas- 
ure, scale, balance, or beam, or, after a weight, measure, scale, 
balance, or beam has been adjusted and sealed, alters it so 
that it does not conform to the public standard, and fraudu- 
lently makes use of it, he shall forfeit for each offence fifty 
dollars, one half to the use of the city or town, and one half 
to the use of the complainant. And every sealer, who has 
reasonable cause to believe that a weight, measure, scale, 
balance, or beam has been altered since it was last adjusted 
and sealed, shall enter the premises in which it is kept or 
used, and shall examine the same. 

§ 1236. Each sealer of weights and measures, including 
the deputies of the treasurer and county treasurers, shall 
receive a fee of three cents for every weight, measure, scale, 
beam, or balance by him sealed, except platform balances. 
For sealing each platform balance weighing five thousand 
pounds and upwards, the sealer shall receive one dollar ; and 
for sealing each platform balance weighing less than that 
amount, fifty cents. Every sealer shall also have a reasonable 
compensation for all repairs, alterations, and adjustments 
which it may be necessary for him to make. 

§ 1237. The city council of a city may by ordinance, and a 
town may by by-law, provide that the sealer of weights and 
measures for their city or town shall be paid by a salary, and 
that he shall account for and pay into the treasury of the 



440 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

city or town the fees received by him by virtue of his office ; 
and where such salary is paid, no fees shall be charged for 
the services stated in § 1226 ante. 

§ 1238. The vibrating steelyards, which have been hereto- 
fore allowed and used in this Commonwealth, may continue 
to be used : provided, that each beam and the poises thereof 
are annually tried, proved, and sealed by a sealer of weights 
and measures, like other beams and weights. Pub. Stats. 
eh. 65, §§ 9-24. 

§ 1239. When commodities are sold by the hundred-weight, 
it shall be understood to mean the net weight of all packages 
from one to one hundred pounds avoirdupois ; and all contracts 
concerning goods sold by weight shall be understood and 
construed accordingly. 

§ 1240. Every public weigher of goods or commodities 
shall weigh the same according to the provisions of the pre- 
ceding section, and shall make his certificate accordingly ; 
and for each refusal or neglect he shall forfeit a sum not 
exceeding ten dollars. Every weigher of goods appointed by 
a city or town, and every weigher for hire or reward, shall 
be deemed and taken to be a public weigher within the provi- 
sions of this section. 

§ 1241. In every city and town in which the provisions of 
this section or the corresponding provisions of earlier laws 
have been or shall be accepted by the city council of the city, 
or by the inhabitants of the town at a legal meeting, every 
measure by which salt or grain is sold, in addition to being 
conformable in capacity and diameter to the public standards, 
shall have a bar of iron across- the middle thereof at the top, 
to be approved by a sealer of weights and measures, and a bar 
or standards of iron from the centre of the first-mentioned 
bar to the centre of the bottom of the measure, to be approved 
in like manner ; and every such measure shall be filled by 
shovelling such salt or grain into the same, and the striking 
thereof shall always be lengthwise of the first-described bar. 
And whoever sells or exposes to sale any salt or grain in any 
other measure, or fills or strikes such measure in any other 
manner, than is provided in this section, shall forfeit fifty 
cents for every bushel of salt or grain so measured, filled, or 



SEALERS OF WEIGHTS AND MEASURES. 441 

stricken : provided, that salt may be measured from vessels in 
such measures as are used by the government of the United 
States, and that nothing contained in this section shall prevent 
the measuring of salt in tubs, or in any proportional parts of 
hogsheads, without bars, as may be determined by any city or 
town. 

§ 1242. The mayor and aldermen or selectmen of any city 
or town in which boilers and heavy machinery are sold shall 
appoint one or more persons, not engaged in the manufacture 
or sale thereof, to be weighers of boilers and heavy machinery, 
who shall be sworn to the faithful discharge of their duties, 
and shall be removable at the pleasure of the board appointing 
them. They shall receive such fees as may be ordered by 
such board, which fees shall be paid by the seller. Pub. Stats. 
ch. 65, §§ 27-30. 

§ 1243. All apparatus for linear measurements used by a 
land surveyor shall be tested and proved once in each year by 
the sealer of weights and measures in the town or city where 
such surveyor resides, or where he has his office, and all 
chains, tapes, or other implements used for linear measure- 
ments that cannot be made to conform to the standard shall 
be marked " condemned," or "CD." by the sealer of weights 
and measures, and no surveyor shall thereafter use the same 
for measuring land, under the penalty of twenty dollars for 
each offence. 

§ 1244. The mayor and aldermen of a city, or the select- 
men of a town, may, if they deem it expedient so to do, 
appoint a suitable and competent person, other than the sealer 
of weights and measures, to test and prove sucli measuring 
implements. 

§ 1245. The standards used for such tests shall be based 
upon and shall correspond to the standards furnished by the 
Commonwealth to sealers of weights and measures. 

§ 1246, The fees for such testing and proof of each article 
of apparatus shall be twenty-five cents, to be paid by the 
person presenting the apparatus for test. Pub. Stats, ch. 64. 
§§ 6-9. 

§ 1247. A sealer or deputy sealer of weights and measures, 
or any person specially authorized thereto by the mayor and 



442 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

aldermen of a city, or selectmen of a town, may seize any 
measures in the possession of a vendor of merchandise or of 
articles offered for sale and used or intended to be used for 
measuring merchandise, or articles offered for sale and not 
made of the shape and dimensions required by law and sealed 
as so required, and having seized any such measures shall 
make complaint against such vendor of having in his posses- 
sion such measures with intent to use the same in violation of 
law. The possession of any such measures by such vendor 
shall be prima facie evidence that the said measures were in- 
tended to be used in violation of law, and any person convicted 
on the complaint aforesaid shall be subject to a fine not 
exceeding twenty dollars for each offence, and the court so 
convicting shall cause said measures to be destroyed. Sts. 
1883, ch. 225. 

§ 1248. In the sale by measure of coal in quantities less 
than five hundred pounds, the baskets or measures used in 
measuring the same shall be of a cylindrical form, of the follow- 
ing dimensions in the inside thereof, to wit : nineteen inches 
in diameter in every part, and nine inches in depth, measured 
from the highest part of the bottom thereof, each of which 
shall be deemed to be of the capacity of one bushel ; or nine- 
teen inches in diameter in every part, and four inches and 
one half in depth, measured from the highest part of the 
bottom thereof, each of which shall be deemed to be of the 
capacity of one half-bushel. Such measures, in selling, shall 
be filled level full, and every such measure shall be sealed by 
a sealer of the city or town in which the person using the 
same usually resides or does business. Sts. 1883, ch. 218, § 1. 

§ 1249. The capacity of the baskets or measures mentioned 
in the preceding section shall be plainly marked or stamped 
thereon by the sealer of weights and measures. Coal sold in 
accordance with the provisions of said section shall be delivered 
to the purchasers thereof in the same baskets or measures 
that are used in measuring such coal. Sts. 1884, ch. 70, § 1. 



THE REGULATION OF FISHERIES. 443 



CHAPTER XVII. 

THE REGULATION OF FISHERIES. 

§ 1250. A city or town, either alone or with another city 
or town, may, for the purpose of cultivating useful fishes, and 
under such conditions and restrictions as the commissioners 
of inland fisheries may prescribe, take a lease of a great pond 
situated either wholly or partly within its limits, and may 
appropriate money therefor. Pub. Stats, ch. 91, § 14. 

§ 1251. The county commissioners for each county shall, 
upon the request and at the expense of any party claiming to 
be interested in any great pond, cause the same to be meas- 
ured in the month of July, and such measurement when 
determined shall be recorded in the town clerk's office of each 
town within which such pond is situated ; and no arm or 
branch shall be included as a part of a pond, unless it is at 
least fifty feet in width and one foot in depth. 

§ 1252. The selectmen of a town may measure ponds 
wmolly within the town in the manner provided in the pre- 
ceding section, and such measurement shall be recorded in 
the town clerk's office. 

§ 1253. A pond not more than twenty acres in area, 
bounded in part by land belonging to a town or county, shall 
only become the exclusive property of the individual proprie- 
tors as to the fisheries therein upon payment to the town 
treasurer, county commissioners, or state treasurer, of a just 
compensation for their respective rights therein, to be deter- 
mined by a board of three persons, one of whom shall be one 
of the riparian proprietors of said pond, one the chairman of 
the board of selectmen, if the rights of a town are in question, 
or of the county commissioners, if the rights of a county or 
the Commonwealth are in question, and one to be appointed 
by the commissioners on inland fisheries. Pub. Stats, ch. 91, 
§§ 21-23. 



444 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

§ 1254. The mayor and aldermen of cities, and the select- 
men of towns, bordering on the Connecticut or Merrimack 
River shall appoint and fix the compensation of one or more 
suitable persons as fish-wardens within their respective cities 
and towns, who shall, respectively, make complaint of all 
offences under sections thirty-two, thirty-five, and forty of 
chapter ninety-one of the Public Statutes. Pub. Stats, ch. 91, 
§ 42. 

§ 1255. A city or town may open ditches, sluiceways, or 
canals into any pond within its limits, for the introduction 
and propagation of herrings or alewives, and for the creation 
of fisheries for the same ; and the land for opening such 
ditches, sluiceways, or canals within such city or town may 
be taken according to the provisions of the statutes which 
regulate and limit the taking of land for highways. 

§ 1256. A city or town creating such fishery shall own 
the same, and may make any proper regulations concerning 
it, and may lease it for a period not exceeding five years, 
upon such terms as may be agreed upon. And a town may 
lease for a like period, and upon like terms, any fishery now 
owned by it, or any public fishery which has heretofore been 
regulated and controlled by such town. Pub. Stats, ch. 91, 
§§ 63, 64. 

§ 1257. The mayor and aldermen of cities, and the select- 
men of towns, when so instructed by their cities and towns, 
may control and regulate or prohibit the taking of eels, clams, 
quah augs, and scallops within the same, including ponds 
which are now or may hereafter be leased by the commis- 
sioners ; and may grant permits prescribing the times and 
methods of taking eels and the shell-fish above named within 
such cities and towns, and make such other regulations in 
regard to said fisheries as they may deem expedient. But 
any inhabitant of the Commonwealth, without such permit, 
may take, from the waters of his own or any other city or 
town, eels and the shell-fish above named for his own family 
use ; and may take from the waters of his own city or town 
any of the shell-fish above named for bait, not exceeding 
three bushels, including shells, in any one day, but subject 
nevertheless to the general rules prescribed by the mayor and 



THE REGULATION OF FISHERIES. 445 

aldermen and selectmen, respectively, as to the times and 
methods of taking such fish. Sts. 1889, ch. 391. 

There is no private right to dig quahaugs in this Common- 
wealth ; whatever right of that kind that a man has is a pub- 
lic right. Com. v. Manimon, 136 Mass. 456. 

§ 1258. The mayor and aldermen of a city and the select- 
men of a town lying upon tide water may authorize in writing 
any person to construct fish-weirs in said waters within the 
limits of such city or town for a term not exceeding five 
years : provided, such weirs cause no obstruction to naviga- 
tion, and do not encroach on the rights of other persons. 
Pub. Stats, ch. 91, § 70. 

§ 1259. The mayor and aldermen of a city, or selectmen 
of a town, in which there are oyster-beds, may grant a permit 
in writing to any person to take oysters from their beds, at 
such times, in such quantities, and for such uses, as they shall 
express in their permit ; and eyevy inhabitant of such city or 
town may, without such permit, take oysters from the beds 
therein for the use of his family, from the first day of Sep- 
tember to the first day of June, not exceeding in any week two 
bushels, including the shells. Pub. Stats, ch. 91, § 94. 

There is a public right to take shell-fish on the shore and 
flats below high-water mark and within one hundred rods of 
the upland, until the flats are enclosed by the proprietors. 
Packard v. Ryder, 141 Mass. 440. 

§ 1260. The mayor and aldermen of a city, or selectmen of 
a town, may, by writing under their hands, grant a license for 
a term not exceeding ten years to any inhabitant thereof, to 
plant, grow, and dig oysters at all times of the year, upon and 
in any flats and creeks therein, at any place where there is no 
natural oyster-bed ; not, however, impairing the private rights 
of any person, nor materially obstructing the navigable waters 
of any creek or bay. Pub. Stats, ch. 91, § 97 ; Sts. 1884, 
ch. 284, § 2. 

§ 1261. Such license shall describe by metes and bounds 
the flats and creeks so appropriated, and shall be recorded 
by the city or town clerk before it shall have any force ; and 
the person licensed shall pay to the mayor and aldermen or 



446 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

selectmen, for their use, two dollars, and to the clerk fifty 
cents. Pub. Stats, ch. 91, § 98. 

§ 1262. The provisions of the preceding sections, relating 
to the planting and growing of oysters, are hereby extended 
sc as to apply to any waters where there is no natural oyster 
bed, not however impairing the private rights of any person, 
and not materially obstructing any navigable waters. Sts. 

1884, ch. 284, § 1. 

§ 1263. No license shall be granted to plant, grow and dig 
oysters under the three preceding sections, without a public 
hearing upon the matter, due notice of which shall be given 
in writing, to be posted in three or more public places in the 
town in which the premises lie, at least seven days before the 
time fixed for such hearing. 

§ 1264. In case any person to whom such license shall be 
granted fails for two years thereafter to plant and grow oysters 
in the waters described in said license, the same shall be 
revoked by the officers who granted it, which revocation shall 
be recorded as is stated in § 1261, ante. Sts. 1885, ch. 220, 

§§ 1, 2- 

§ 1265. The selectmen of any town, or mayor and alder- 
men of any city, may designate one or more constables for the 
detection and prosecution of any violation of the law T s of the 
state relating to shell fisheries, within their respective juris- 
dictions. Each of said constables so designated may without 
warrant arrest any person found violating any of said laws, 
and detain him for prosecution not exceeding twenty-four 
hours, and may seize any boat or vessel used in such violation, 
together with her tackle, apparel, and furniture, with all 
implements belonging thereto, which shall be forfeited to the 
use of the town or city in which such seizure is made. Sts. 

1885, ch. 220, § 6. 

§ 1266. No license to plant, grow, and dig oysters shall be 
assigned or transferred without the written consent of the 
mayor and aldermen of the city, or the selectmen of the town in 
which the premises described in the license are situated, and 
no license shall be granted, assigned, or transferred to persons 
who are not inhabitants of the city or town wherein the 
licensed premises are situated. 



THE REGULATION OF FISHERIES. 447 

§ 1267. The authority to dig, take, or carry away oysters 
from any premises for which a license has been granted, is 
hereby limited to the hours in each day between one hour 
before sunrise and one hour after sunset. Sts. 1886, ch. 299, 
§§ 1, 2. 



448 THE TOWN OFFICER. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

THE MILITIA LAW IN ITS RELATION TO TOWNS. 

(a) Persons Subject to Military Duty, 

§ 1268. Every able-bodied male citizen, resident within 
this state, of the age of eighteen years and under the age of 
forty-five years, except persons exempt as stated in §§ 1269, 
1270, and 1272 post; and idiots, lunatics, common drunkards, 
vagabonds, paupers, and persons convicted of any infamous 
crime shall be enrolled in the militia. Persons so convicted 
after enrolment shall forthwith be disenrolled ; and in all 
cases of doubt respecting the age of a person enrolled, the 
burden of proof shall be upon him. 

§ 1269. In addition to the persons exempted from enrol- 
ment in the militia by the laws of the United States, the 
persons hereinafter mentioned shall also be absolutely exempted 
from enrolment, viz. : Justices and clerks of courts of record ; 
registers of probate and insolvency ; registers of deeds, and 
sheriffs ; officers who have held or may hold commissions in 
the regular or volunteer army or navy of the United States ; 
officers who have held, for a period of five years, commissions 
in the militia of this or any other state of the United States, 
or who have been superseded and discharged, or who held 
commissions in any organization of the Massachusetts volun- 
teer militia at the time of its disbandment ; ministers of the 
gospel ; practising physicians ; superintendents, officers and 
assistants employed in or about either of the state hospitals, 
state almshouses, state prisons, jails, or houses of correction ; 
keepers of lighthouses ; conductors and engine-drivers of rail- 
road trains ; seamen actually employed on board of any vessel, 
or who have been so employed within three months next pre- 
ceding the time of enrolment. 

§ 1270. Every person of either of the religious denomina- 
tions of Quakers or Shakers, who, on or before the first 



THE MILITIA LAW IN ITS RELATION TO TOWNS. 449 

Tuesday in May, annually, produces to the assessors of the 
city or town in which he resides a certificate signed by two 
or more of the elders or overseers, as the case may be, and 
countersigned by the clerk of the society with which he meets 
for public religious worship, shall be exempted from enrol- 
ment. The certificate shall be in form as follows : — 

We, the subscribers of the societ}' of the people called in 

the of , in the county of , do hereby certify- 

that is a member of our societ}^ and that he frequently 

and usually attends religious worship with said society, and we be- 
lieve he is conscientiously scrupulous of bearing arms. 

A. B. I Elders or Overseers 
C. D. j (as the case may be). 
E. F., Clerk. 

§ 1271. If elders or overseers of a society of Quakers or 
Shakers give the certificate provided in the preceding section 
to a person who does not profess the religious faith of their 
society, or who is not a member thereof, or who is not con- 
scientiously scrupulous of bearing arms, each elder or overseer 
so offending shall forfeit two hundred dollars to the use of the 
Commonwealth, and be imprisoned not exceeding six months ; 
and any person, claiming to be exempted from enrolment by 
virtue of such a certificate, who does not profess the religious 
faith, or is not a member of the society named therein, or who 
is not conscientiously scrupulous of bearing arms, shall be 
liable to the same penalty. 

§ 1272. Engine-men or members of the fire department in 
a city or town shall be exempted from military duty by forth- 
with filing with the assessors of the city or town in which they 
reside a certificate that they are engine-men or members of 
the fire department as aforesaid, signed by the mayor and 
aldermen or fire commissioners of such city or the selectmen 
of such town ; but when a member of a volunteer company is, 
after his enlistment, appointed an engine-man or member of 
the fire department, it shall not vacate his enlistment. 

§ 1273. The enrolled militia shall be subject to no active 
duty except in case of war, invasion, the prevention of inva- 
sion, the suppression of riots, and to aid civil officers in the 
execution of the laws of the Commonwealth. 

29 



450 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

(b) The Enrolment of Persons Subject to Military Duty. 

§ 1274. Assessors shall annually, in May or June, make a 
list of persons living within their respective limits liable to 
enrolment, and place a certified copy thereof in the hand of 
the clerks of their respective cities and towns, who shall place 
it on file with the records of such city or town, and annually, 
in May, June, or July, transmit returns of the militia thus 
enrolled to the adjutant-general. 

§ 1275. Keepers of taverns or boarding-houses, and masters 
and mistresses of dwelling-houses, shall, upon application of 
the assessors within whose bounds their houses are situated, 
or of persons acting under them, give information of the 
names of persons residing in their houses liable to enrolment 
or to do military duty, and every such person shall, upon like 
application, give his name and age ; and if such keeper, 
master, mistress, or person refuses to give such information, 
or gives false information, such keeper, master, or mistress 
shall forfeit twenty dollars, and such person shall forfeit 
twelve dollars, to be recovered on complaint of either of the 
assessors. 

(c) Calling out and Organizing the Enrolled Militia for 

Active Duty. 

§ 1276. When it is necessary to call out any portion of the 
enrolled militia for active duty, the commander-in-chief shall 
direct his order to the mayor and aldermen of cities, or to the 
selectmen of towns, who, upon receipt of the same, shall forth- 
with, by written oral notice to each individual, or by procla- 
mation, appoint a time and place for the assembling of the 
enrolled militia in their city or town, and shall then and there 
proceed to draft as many thereof, or to accept as many volun- 
teers, as is required by the order of the commander-in-chief, 
and shall forthwith forward to the commander-in-chief a list 
of the persons so drafted or accepted as volunteers. 

§ 1277. Every member of the enrolled militia ordered out, 
or who volunteers or is detached or drafted, under the pro- 
visions hereof, who does not appear at the time and place 
designated by the mayor and aldermen or selectmen, or who 



THE MJLITIA LAW IN ITS RELATION TO TOWNS. 451 

has not some able-bodied and proper substitute at such time 
and place, or does not pay to such mayor and aldermen or 
selectmen, for the use of the Commonwealth, seventy-five 
dollars within twenty-four hours from such time, or who does 
not produce a sworn certificate, from a physician in good 
standing, of physical disability to so appear, shall be taken to 
be a deserter, and dealt with accordingly. Sts. 1887, ch. 411, 

§§ i-io. 

§ 1278. Petitions for organizing volunteer companies may 
be granted by the commander-in-chief, due regard being had 
to a proper distribution of the force through the Common- 
wealth ; such petition shall be accompanied by the approval 
of the mayor and aldermen of cities or the selectmen of 
towns in which a majority of the petitioners reside ; but no 
new company shall be organized except as provided in the pre- 
ceding section, if thereby the whole number of companies 
shall exceed the number established in this act. 

§ 1279. No person shall be eligible to election or appointment 
to office in the militia *of this Commonwealth who is not a 
male citizen of the United States, of eighteen years of age or 
upwards, resident in this state, or who is disqualified by law 
from enrolment in the militia; but no citizen otherwise quali- 
fied shall be ineligible to office in the militia from not having 
been enrolled therein. No person shall be eligible to military 
office who is under sentence of disability to hold office or com- 
mand, or of suspension from command, in the military forces 
of the United States or of any state. No citizen of the Com- 
monwealth above the age of forty-five years shall on account 
of such age be ineligible to office in the militia, nor incap- 
able of serving in a volunteer company. Sts. 1887, ch. 411, 
§§ 24, 32. 

§ 1280. Every person recruited for the Massachusetts 
volunteer militia shall sign an enlistment roll, in form as 
follows : — 

I, whose signature is hereunto affixed, do hereby enlist, or re- 
enlist, as the case may be, in [company, battalion, or regiment or 
corps, etc.] of the Massachusetts volunteer militia for the term set 
against my name, subject to all laws and regulations which may 
govern the same ; and I do declare that I know of no impediment 



452 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

to my serving honestly and faithfully as a soldier for the term of 
my enlistment. 

§ 1281. As soon as practicable, and not more than thirty 
days after such enlistment, the soldier shall be mustered in 
by a competent mustering officer, before whom he shall make 
oath as follows : — 

I, , do solemnly swear that I will bear true faith and 

allegiance to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and will support 
the constitution thereof; and I do also solemnly swear that I will 
faithfully observe and obey all laws and regulations for the govern- 
ment of the volunteer militia of said Commonwealth, and the orders 
of all officers elected or appointed over me. I do also solemnly 
swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States. So 
help me God. 

Sworn to before me. , 



Mustering Officer. 

And no enlisted man shall be held to duty in the volunteer 
militia, or receive any compensation or allowance, until he is 
so mustered in. Sts. 1887, ch. 411, §§ 59, 60. 

§ 1282. The uniform of the volunteer militia shall consist 
of an overcoat, a coat, a fatigue blouse or jacket, a pair of 
trousers, a hat complete, and a fatigue cap for each enlisted 
man, the style of which shall be prescribed by the commander- 
in-chief, and uniforms hereafter provided shall be substantially 
alike for each arm of the service. No uniforms shall be pro- 
vided by the state, except by a special appropriation for that 
purpose, in which case the purchase shall be made under such 
inspection as the commander-in-chief may direct. Sts. 1887, 
ch. 411, § 73. 

(d) Armories. 
§ 1283. The mayor and aldermen and selectmen shall pro- 
vide for each regiment, battalion, corps of cadets, or portion 
of the volunteer militia, within the limits of their respective 
cities or towns, a suitable armory for the purpose of drill, and 
for the safe keeping of the arms, equipments, uniforms, and 
other military property furnished to such portion of the vol- 
unteer militia by the state ; and shall also provide suitable 



THE MILITIA LAW IN ITS RELATION TO TOWNS. 453 

grounds or places for the parade, drill, and target-practice of 
the militia belonging to their respective cities and towns. 
They shall also provide for the headquarters, located within 
their limits of each brigade, regiment, separate battalion, or 
corps of cadets, a suitable room for the keeping of books, 
the transaction of business, and the instruction of officers. 
Necessary fuel and lights, or a reasonable allowance therefor, 
shall be furnished by cities and towns for each armory or 
headquarters located within their limits. 

§ 1284. Where two or more companies of the same bat- 
talion are located within the limits of a city or town, the mayor 
and aldermen or selectmen thereof shall, if practicable, pro- 
vide such companies with a drill hall, to be used by them in 
common, of capacity sufficient for battalion drill, together 
with a smaller room in the same building, for each of said 
companies, suitable for company meetings, and for the safe 
keeping of military property, as provided in the preceding 
section. The headquarters of each regiment, battalion, and 
corps of cadets shall be established with said commands, or 
portions thereof, as far as practicable. 

§ 1285. Cities and towns in which regiments, battalions, 
corps of cadets or companies, or the headquarters of brigades, 
regiments, battalions, corps of cadets, signal and ambulance 
corps, or detachments of militia are located, may raise money, 
by taxation or otherwise, for the purpose of erecting suitable 
buildings for the armories or headquarters of such organiza- 
tions. 

§ 1286. When a company is formed from different places, 
the location of its armory shall be determined by a majority of 
its members, subject to the approval of the adjutant-general. 

§ 1287. Armories provided for the militia shall not be used 
for any purpose whatever other than the legitimate uses of the 
commands occupying them ; and no commander of any regi- 
ment, battalion, corps of cadets or company shall allow the 
armory or armories of his command to be let for other than a 
proper military purpose, unless by approval of the commander- 
in-chief and intermediate commanders. 

§ 1288. Every officer whose command occupies, assembles 
or drills in any armory, drill hall, or building allowed accord- 



454 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

ing to law for such purpose shall have control of such premises 
during the period of occupation, subject to the orders of his 
superior commanders ; and any person who intrudes contrary 
to his orders or the orders of his superior commanders, or 
who interrupts, molests, obstructs, or insults the troops or any 
of them so occupying such premises may be dealt with as 
have been prescribed in §§ 118 and 119 of chapter 411 of 
the Acts of 1887 for like offences, at the discretion of the 
officer in charge of the troops or his superior commanders : 
provided, that nothing in this section shall be construed to 
prevent reasonable inspection of the premises by the mayor 
and aldermen or selectmen of a city or town, or by the owners 
of the premises, according to the terms which may have been 
specified therefor in a lease. 

§ 1289. The mayor and aldermen of cities, and selectmen 
of towns, shall annually, on the first day of October, transmit 
to the adjutant-general a return, verified by oath or affirmation 
of at least two of their board, showing the name of each militia 
organization or headquarters furnished with an armory, 
the amount paid or charged for the rent thereof, and that 
the amount charged is fair and reasonable according to the 
value of real estate in their place. Returns not received by 
December first will not be allowed. Sts. 1887, ch. 411, 
§§ 90-96. 

(e) Tours of Duty, Inspection, and Drills. 

§ 1290. When there is in any city or town a tumult, riot, 
mob, or a body of men acting together by force, with attempt 
to commit a felony, or to offer violence to person or property, 
or by force and violence to break and resist the laws of the 
Commonwealth, or when such tumult, riot, or mob is threat- 
ened, and the fact is made to appear to' the commander-in- 
chief, the sheriff of the county, the mayor of the city, or the 
selectmen of the town, the commander-in-chief may issue his 
order, or such sheriff, mayor, or selectmen may issue a precept, 
directed to any commander of a brigade, regiment, battalion, 
corps of cadets, or company, directing him to order his com- 
mand, or a part thereof, to appear at a time and place therein 
specified, to aid the civil authority in suppressing such 



THE MILITIA LAW IN ITS RELATION TO TOWNS. 455 

violence, and supporting the laws ; which precept shall be in 
substance as follows : — 



Commonwealth of Massachusetts. 



ss. 



? 

L. S. 

To {insert the officer's title) A. B.. commanding {insert his command). 
Whereas it has been made to appear to (the sheriff, mayor, or the 
selectmen, as the case may be) of the (county, city, or town) of 
that (here state one or more of the causes above mentioned) in our 
of , and that . military force is necessary to aid the civil 
authority in suppressing the same : Now, therefore, we command 
you that you cause (your command or such part thereof as may be 
desired), armed and equipped with ammunition, and with proper 
officers, to parade afc , on , then and there to obey such 

orders as may be given, according to law. Hereof fail not at your 
peril, and have you there this precept, with }'our doings returned 
thereon. 

This precept shall be signed and properly attested as the 
act of such sheriff, mayor, or selectmen, and shall be under 
seal, and may be varied to suit the circumstances of the case ; 
and a copy of the same shall be immediately forwarded to the 
commander-in-chief. 

§ 1291. The officer to whom the order of the commander- 
in-chief or brigade commander, or such precept, is directed 
shall forthwith order the troops therein called for to parade at 
the time and place appointed, and shall immediately notify the 
commander-in-chief of such order, directly, in the most expe- 
ditions manner, and by letter through the usual military 
channels. Sts. 1887, ch 411, §§ 99-100. 

§ 1292. Such troops shall appear at the time and place 
appointed, armed, equipped, and with ball ammunition, and 
shall obey and execute such orders as they may then and 
there receive, according to law. 

§ 1293. The mayor and aldermen of a city and the select- 
men of a town to which men so ordered out, detached, or 
drafted belong, when required in writing by a commander of 
a regiment or detachment, shall provide carriages to attend 
them with further supplies of provisions, and to carry neces- 
sary baggage, and provide necessary camp equipage and 



456 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

utensils, until notified by the commanding officer to desist ; 
and shall present their accounts for the same to the quarter- 
master-general. For any neglect by such mayor and aldermen, 
or selectmen, under this section, such city or town shall for- 
feit to the use of the Commonwealth not less than twenty 
nor more than five hundred dollars. Sts. 1887, ch. 411, 
§§ 102, 104. 

§ 1294. Each regiment, separate battalion, corps' of cadets, 
and unattached company of the volunteer militia shall parade 
for drill one day in each year, at such time and place as the 
commander-in-chief may designate. The inspector-general, 
his assistants, or such other officers as the commander-in-chief 
shall indicate, shall attend such drills, and report upon the 
proficiency of the troops ; such report to be made to the com- 
mander-in-chief, in writing, within thirty days from the date 
of such drill. 

§ 1295. The volunteer militia shall perform five con- 
secutive days of camp duty in each year; and unless the 
commander-in-chief prescribes the time, place, and manner of 
assembling the troops for that purpose, each commander of 
brigade or corps of cadets shall annually order an encamp- 
ment of his command, by brigade, regiments, or battalions, 
at some time during the months of June, July, August, 
September, or October. 

§ 1296. All encampments shall be held upon the state 
campground, unless otherwise directed by the commander-in- 
chief ; and no ground shall be occupied for an encampment in 
the time of peace without the consent of the selectmen of the 
town, or mayor and aldermen of the city where the encamp- 
ment is to be made, unless by order of the commander-in- 
chief ; such ground to be paid for by the state on contracts to 
be approved by the adjutant-general. Sts. 1887, ch. 411, 
§§ 106-108. 

§ 1297. Every company shall drill at least twice in each 
month. Battalion drills may count in the place of company 
drills. Nothing in this section shall prevent commanding 
officers ordering drills more frequently. 

§ 1298. No parade or voluntary service shall be performed 
by any company, under arms or with state uniform, without 



THE MILITIA LAW IN ITS RELATION TO TOWNS. 457 

the approval of the regimental or separate battalion com- 
mander, or, if unattached, of its next superior. 

§ 1299. Every commanding officer, when on duty, may 
ascertain and fix necessary bounds and limits to his parade or 
encampment, not including a road so as to prevent passing, 
within which no spectator shall enter without leave from such 
commanding officer. Whoever intrudes within the limits of 
the parade or encampment, after being forbidden, may be con- 
fined under guard during the time of parade or encampment, 
or a shorter time, at the discretion of the commanding officer ; 
and whoever resists a sentry who attempts to put him or keep 
him out of such limits may be arrested by order of the com- 
manding officer, and carried before the judge advocate general 
or a judge advocate on duty at the encampment, as provided 
in § 110 of chapter 411 of the Acts of 1887, or other court of 
justice having jurisdiction of the place, to be examined or tried 
upon complaint of the commanding officer for such assault 
or disturbance or breach of the peace. Sts. 1887, ch. 411, 
§§ 116-118. 

§ 1300. United States forces or troops, or any portion of 
the militia parading or performing any duty according to law, 
shall have the right of way in any street or highway through 
which they may pass, provided the carriage of the United 
States mails, the legitimate functions of the police, and the 
progress and operations of fire engines and fire departments 
shall not be interfered with thereby. Sts. 1887, ch. 411, 
§120. 

§ 1301. No body of men whatsoever, other than the regu- 
larly organized corps of the militia, the troops of the United 
States, the ancient and honorable artillery company, the vet- 
eran artillery association of Newburyport, the veteran cadet 
association of Salem, the veteran association of the indepen- 
dent corps of cadets of Boston, the Salem light infantry vet- 
eran association, the veteran artillery association of Amesbury 
and Salisbury, and the Boston light infantry association, shall 
associate themselves together at any time as a military com- 
pany or organization, for drill or parade in public with fire- 
arms, in any city or town of this Commonwealth, without the 
license of the governor thereof ; and all applications for such 



458 THE TOWN OFFICER. 

license must be approved by the mayor and aldermen of cities, 
and selectmen of towns, in which such organizations or asso- 
ciations may be located, which may at any time be revoked ; 
nor shall any city or town raise or appropriate any money 
toward arming, equipping, uniforming, or in any way support- 
ing, sustaining, or providing drill rooms or armories for any 
such body of men : provided, that associations wholly com- 
posed of soldiers and sailors honorably discharged from the 
service of the United States may parade at any time in public 
with fire-arms, having first obtained the written permission so 
to do of the mayor and aldermen of the cities, or selectmen 
of the towns, in which they desire to parade ; and provided, 
further, that students in educational institutions where mili- 
tary science is a prescribed part of the course of instruction 
may, with the consent of the governor, drill and parade with 
fire-arms in public, under the superintendence of their teachers ; 
and provided, also, that the provisions of this act shall not 
affect the provisions of chapter sixty-seven of the resolves of 
the year eighteen hundred and ninety which provides that 
regularly organized camps of the sons of veterans be permitted 
to parade their color guards of ten men armed with fire-arms 
in public at all times. Sts. 1890, ch. 425, § 10. 



INDEX. 



INDEX 



(The figures refer to the sections, unless otherwise stated.) 



ABATEMENT OF TAXES, 

assessors may make, in certain cases 630 

costs must be paid before applying for 631 

if assessors refuse, appeal may be made 632 

not to be had unless certain provisions are complied with 

633-635 
a person having an, shall be reimbursed if tax has been 

paid 636 

certificate of, to be given 637 

of poll tax or personal property may be made in cer- 
tain cases 639 

AGENTS, 

appointed by towns to bring suits 7 

ALEWIVES. (See Herrings.) 

ALMSHOUSES. (See Workhouses and Almshouses.) 

ANATOMICAL SCIENCE, 

provisions for the advancement of 720, 721 

APPRENTICES, 

duties of overseers concerning 738-742 

APPROPRIATIONS, ILLEGAL, 

how towns are restrained from making . . . . . . 137 

ARMORIES, 

selectmen shall provide 1283 

towns may raise money for the purpose of erecting . . 1285 
location of, when company is formed from different places 

1286 
to be used for military purposes only, except in certain 
cases 1287 



462 INDEX. 

ARMORIES — continued. 

officers to have control of, during period of occupation 

1288 
amount paid for rent for, to be certified to adjutant gen- 
eral 1289 

ATTACHMENTS, 

duties of town clerks as to 371, 372 

AUCTIONEERS, 

to be licensed ; fees for licensing 483 

selectmen to record licenses of 483 

to give bonds to town treasurer ........ 484 

conditions as to places of selling in licenses of . . . . 485 

AUDITORS, 

elected at annual town meeting . ... c ... . 307 

duties of 317 

shall hold no other town office 307 

vacancies in office of, how filled , 334 

ASSESSORS OF TAXES, 

three or more, elected at annual town meeting except as 

otherwise provided 307,309,311 

assistant, may be chosen 307 

certain vacancies in office of, how filled 332 

selectmen shall be in certain towns . 415 

acceptance of statutes relating to election of, may be 

revoked 311 

shall make lists of persons subject to poll taxes . . .150 

correction of errors in poll-tax lists by 150 

shall preserve applications for poll-tax assessments . .150 
poll-tax lists to be furnished by, to registrars . . . . 151 
shall furnish street lists of assessed polls in certain towns 

152, 153 
in certain towns shall post lists of assessed polls , . .152 
supplementary assessments of poll taxes by • • . 154,155 

shall make lists of dogs 410 

certify to town treasurer list of members of fire de- 
partments 513 

assess money voted by fire districts 542 

oaths of 591, 622 

assistant, to be sworn 592 

penalty on, for not taking prescribed oath . . . 592,593 
in what manner they shall assess taxes .... 594-600 



INDEX. 463 

ASSESSORS OF TAXES — continued. 

rules for assessing taxes for ......... p. 203 

duties of, as regards notices and lists 601-622 

form of notice by, to bring in lists ....... p. 214 

oath administered by, to person bringing in list p. 215 
request for information made to assessors of 
another town, and reply to same . . . . p. 215 

duties of, as to collector's list and warrant . . . 623-626 

form for warrant from, to collectors p. 217 

duties of, as to discount and interest on taxes . . 627-629 
form of notice of rates of discount to be posted up by . p. 219 

abatements of taxes by . 630-639 

duties of, as to omitted assessments 640 

reassessments of taxes by . 641, 642 

apportionment of taxes by, on real estate subsequently 

divided 643, 644 

other duties of, as regards taxes 645-653 

compensation and responsibility of 654, 655 

what persons and property shall be taxed by . . 656-664 
where polls and property shall be assessed by . . 665-679 

taxation of bank shares by 680-689 

shall annually make a list of persons subject to military 

duty . . ' 1274 

BALLOTS, 

preparation and form of 237-244 

for state officers, to be furnished by secretary . . . . 237 
for town officers in certain towns, to be provided by town 

clerk 237 

contents and form of for State and town officers . . . 238 

for presidential electors .... 239 

shall be printed on certain paper and with certain type . 240 

two sets of, shall be provided 241 

shall be folded in a certain manner ........ 240 

shall be arranged in packages 242 

record of number furnished, to be kept by town clerk . 242 

partial, for state elections to be furnished ...... 243 

in case of vacancies or new nominations 244 

delivery of 248-251 

in case of loss, etc., others to be prepared 251 

shall be delivered to ballot clerks, on day of election . . 255 



464 INDEX, 

BALLOTS — continued. 

time allowed for depositing 259 

no distinguishing mark to be placed upon 267 

shall be kept within view of the voters after being re- 
moved from the ballot box 274 

when to be, and when not to be counted 275 

" defective " to be preserved 275 

after having been canvassed and counted, to be publicly 

enclosed in an envelope and sealed 276 

used and cancelled to be destroyed 278 

in certain towns, may be provided at expense of town 

337, 338 

for town officers to be deposited open 353 

BALLOT BOXES, 

towns to be provided with by secretary 230 

town clerk shall provide a safe place for keeping . . . 233 

custody and repair of, to be at expense of town . . . 233 

provisions concerning use of at elections 256 

officers in charge of, and of voting list, to be of different 

political parties 257 

BALLOT CLERKS, 

at state elections in certain towns inspectors may be ap- 
pointed as 221 

at certain elections selectmen shall appoint 223 

shall send receipt for ballots to town clerk 255 

BANKS, 

taxation of shares of 680-689 

stock of, where taxable 680 

BATHS, 

towns may establish public 16, 17 

BEEF, 

weighers of . . , 425 and note 

BETTERMENTS, 

assessments for 835, 838, 839 

assessments for, assumed in certain cases 836 

invalid assessments for, may be re-assessed 837 

assessments for, to constitute a lien 840 

BILLIARD-TABLES AND BOWLING-ALLEYS, 

to be licensed 465 

licenses for, how signed and what to contain ; fee . . . 467 



INDEX. 465 

BILLIARD-TABLES AND BOWLING-ALLEYS — continued. 

terms of licenses for 468 

licenses for, only extend to places specified 469 

revocation of licenses for ... 470 

BIRTHS, 

physicians and midwives to make returns of, monthly . 392 
town-clerks shall provide physicians and midwives with 

blanks for return of 393 

form for return of, to town clerk p. 150 

(See also Deaths; and Births, Marriages, and Death^.) 
BIRTHS, MARRIAGES, AND DEATHS, 

particulars of, to be recorded by town clerks . . . . 386 

correction of errors in records of 388 

copies of records of, to be sent by clerk to secretary . . 394 
record of, shall he prima facie evidence of fact recorded . 395 
fees of town clerks for receiving facts in relation to- . . 396 
blank books for record of, to be furnished by secretary . 398 
registrars of, may be chosen in certain cases . . . . 399 

records of, may be copied 377 

towns may make rules to secure a more perfect registra- 
tion of 400 

BLANK BOOKS, 

for registering births, marriages, and deaths, to be fur- 
nished to town clerks by secretary 398 

BOARDS OF HEALTH, 

towns may choose by ballot 1078 

selectmen may be in certain cases 1078 

vacancies in, how filled 1079 

may appoint a physician, and regulate fees of persons 

employed 1080, 1081 

may appoint agents, etc 1082 

shall give notice of all its regulations by posting or pub- 
lishing 1085 

shall retain charge of a case after acting therein . . . 1083 
duties of, as regards nuisances, contagion, etc. . . 1084-1115 

vaccination 1116-1119 

lying-in hospitals .1120 

protection of infants . . . . 1121-1125 

quarantine 1126-1130 

hospitals and dangerous diseases 1131-1145 
offensive trades 1146-1154 

30 



466 INDEX. 

BOARDS OF HEALTH — continued. 

duties of, as regards pollution of water supply . . 1155-1162 
cemeteries and burials . . . 1163-1168 

diseased cattle 1169-1179 

BOILERS, 

(See Steam-Engines, Furnaces and Boilers.) 
BONDS, 

town may issue to pay debt 117 

BOOK-CASE, 

town shall provide 27 

BOOKS, VALUATION, 

copies of to be deposited with secretary in certain years . 620 
BOUNDARY LINES, 

of towns, how far shall extend beyond sea line .... 4 

changes in by commissioners 6 

BOWLING-ALLEYS, 

certain provisions to apply to 466 

(See Billiard Tables and Bowling-Alleys.) 
BRIDGES, 

driving over, may be regulated 57 

notices to be posted on 58 

to be kept in repair at expense of town 772 

penalty on towns for neglect to repair ...... 789 

BURIALS, 

permits for, from boards of health 1168 

(See Cemeteries and Burials.) 
BURIAL GROUNDS, COMMISSIONERS OF, 

town may elect board of 125 

BY-LAWS, 

towns may make 18 

for managing prudential affairs 18 

for removal of snow from roofs . . . * 18 

for construction of water-pipes, and reservoirs . . . 19-21 

penalties for breaches of 22 

duties imposed by, how performed 23 

to be approved by superior court 24 

upon whom binding 25 

how published 26 

towns may make concerning removal of snow and ice 
from sidewalks 51, 52 



INDEX. 467 

BY-LAWS — continued. 

as to pasturing cattle in and driving them through the 

streets 53, 54 

as to transportation of slaughtered cattle 55 

towns may make, concerning fast driving . . . . 56, 57 

regulating drawbridges 59, 60 

as to keeping and selling inflammable oils ..... 61 
town may adopt, for prevention of fire 138 

CARRIAGES, 

regulation of 424 

CATTLE, 

pasturing of in, and driving through streets .... 53, 54 

CEMETERIES AND BURIALS, 

towns shall provide e . 118 

lands for, how taken by towns 119 

towns may vote money for improvement of 120 

towns may sell lots in . . 120 

ancient burial-places to be preserved 121 

money may be placed with town treasurer for care of 

lots in . . 122 

ways not to be laid out over . 123, 124 

commissioners of, may be elected 125 

towns may receive gifts or bequests for maintaining . . 125 

regulation of, by boards of health 1163-1168 

cemeteries may be closed under certain restrictions 1163-1166 

CENTENNIAL, 

towns may vote money for observing their . . . . 13, 14 

CERTIFICATES OF NOMINATION, 

shall be signed and sworn to by officers of caucus . . . 197 
forms for, for candidates for state representative to be 

furnished by the secretary . . 210 

(See Nomination Papers.) 

CHARCOAL, 

seizures of illegal measures for 425 and note 

CHATTEL MORTGAGES, 

to be recorded with town clerk 363 

CHECK-LIST, 

when to be used at election of town officers .... 345 



468 INDEX. 

CHIEF ENGINEERS, 

in certain towns may demolish buildings 493 

shall certify lists of members of fire de- 
partment to assessors of taxes . 513-515 
CHILDREN, 

pauper, not to be removed outside the state unless, etc. 705 
not to be removed from town without consent of 

overseers , ..... 719 

CLERKS OF COURTS, 

election and terms of office of . , , . . . s . . 298 
COAL, 

weighers of . * , 425 and note 

COLLECTION OF TAXES, 

by distress 977-982 

imprisonment ... s ...... . 983-988 

suit or distress . , . , 989-992 

sale or taking of real estate ....... 993-1028 

-COLLECTORS OF TAXES, 

town may elect one or more, at annual town meeting 307, 957 

town treasurer may be 307, 959 

in certain cases constables shall be 307, 957 

shall collect taxes according to the warrant 960 

must notify persons of amount of tax 961 

shall enter in his book disposition of each tax assessed . 962 
shall keep a cash book . .... „ o .... 963 

books for, to be furnished by town o 964 

pro-tempore, may be appointed in certain cases . . . 333 
in case of failure to give bonds, selectmen may declare 

office vacant . . 333, 958 

records of, to be deposited with town clerk . . . 965-969 

shall make returns of warrant .970 

may send summons when tax is due before making de- 
mand for payment %...■«>.. 971 

shall complete collection of taxes after term expires . . 972 
shall make demand before selling or distraining . . 973 
in certain cases may compel payment without demand or 

notice 974 

shall demand a certificate from persons claiming abate- 
ment 975 

may collect tax of person intended if there is an error in list 976 
tax-list of, to be committed to successors ..... 1044 



INDEX. 469 

COLLECTORS OF TAXES — continued. 

executors or administrators of, to deliver tax-lists to 

selectmen t 1045 

compensation of 1046 

taxes paid to, not to be recovered back except in certain 

cases 1047 

form of bond to be given by p. 361 

shall collect poll taxes 156 

shall collect money voted by fire districts 542 

make discounts in certain cases 627 

notify assessors when poll or personal property 

taxes cannot be collected 639 

in certain cases levy taxes by distress and sale of 

goods 977, 978 

sale of goods by, for taxes 979-982 

may m certain cases imprison one who fails to pay his 

tax 983-988 

may in certain cases collect taxes by suit or distress 989-992 

fees of ... .■ 972 

in certain cases shall collect taxes by sale or taking of 

real estate 993-1028 

may be directed by towns as to which power they may 

exercise 1033 

when treasurers are, they may issue warrants .... 1034 

deputy collectors may be appointed 1034 

may be required to exhibit account of moneys received 

1036, 1037 

to be credited with all sums abated 1038 

failure to -collect or account for taxes collected by 1039-1041 
substitute to be appointed in case of insanity or removal 

from town of . . . . » 1042 

in certain cases temporary collectors may be appointed . 1043 

form of demand of taxes by p. 361 

notice of sale of distrained property by . . p. 362 
notice of adjournment of sale by .... p. 362 
certificate to be made when corporate stock is 

seized by p. 362 

certificate to be made by, when commitment is 

made p. 362 

warrant of, to distrain or commit .... p. 363 
certificate to be endorsed on warrant when com- 
mitment is made by p. 364 



470 INDEX. 

COLLECTORS OF TAXES — continued, 

form of demand of tax on real estate by ..... p. 364 
notice of sale by, to be published in newspaper p. 365 
notice of, to be posted on the premises . , p. 365 
affidavit of, to be recorded in registry of deeds p. 365 
affidavit by, when demand is made on two per- 
sons p. 366 

affidavit of posting and publishing advertisement 

of sale by p. 366 

deed by p. 367 

deed by, when town is purchaser .... p. 369 
deed to town by, when purchaser fails to pay, 

etc p. 370 

notice of intention to take real estate by . . p. 371 
affidavit of demand and notice to be annexed to 

instrument of taking by p. 371 

taking of real estate by p. 372 

deed by city or town , p. 373 

receipt by, to a mortgagee p. 374 

receipt by p, 374 

notice of sale of unredeemed real estate by . p. 375 

deed of unredeemed tax title by p. 376 

affidavit by, of failure of bidder to pay sum bid p. 377 
notices by, when tax title is deemed invalid . p. 377 
notice by, to holder of the title p. 378 

COLLECTORS' LISTS, 

contents and form of 623 

assessors not to commit to collectors until bonds have 

been given 624 

COMMISSIONERS OF INSOLVENCY, 

election and terms of office of , . . 301 

COMMON NUISANCES, 

burned or dangerous buildings declared* to be, how .dis- 
posed of 557 

may be abated 558 

certain places and buildings declared to be 559 

booths for gaming near public shows may be abated as . 560 
COMMON VICTUALLERS, 

licenses of, only granted on certain conditions .... 437 

penalty on, for refusing to supply food 439 

(See Innholders.) 



INDEX. 4T1 

CONSTABLES, 

one or more, to be elected at annual town meeting . . 307 

in certain cases shall be collectors of taxes 307 

shall declare acceptance or refusal of their office . . . 331 
vacancies in office of, how filled in certain cases . . , 331 
to serve order upon owner of building declared a common 

nuisance 557 

shall summon jurors 576 

kill unlicensed dogs, fees 579 

return number of unlicensed dogs killed to selectmen 580 
penalty on, for neglecting to take oath or refusing to serve 1057 
may serve certain writs on giving certain bonds 1058, 1059, 

1061 

suits may be brought on bonds of 1060 

may serve certain papers by attested copies 1062 

may require aid in execution of their duties 1062 

shall serve all warrants directed to them by selectmen . 1063 
certain violations of the law to be prosecuted by . . . 1064 
may convey property and prisoners beyond limits of town 1065 
may arrest escaped prisoners in any place in Common- 
wealth 1066 

shall aid the governor whenever called upon . . . .1067 
may arrest persons committing certain offences . 1068-1074 
shall prosecute violations of law against cruelty to ani* 

mals 1075 

may arrest people present at dog or cock fights . . . 1076 
may arrest hawkers and pedlers who are violating the law 1077 
selectmen may designate, to prosecute violations of laws 

concerning shell fisheries 1265 

form for return on warrant for town meeting by . . p. 387 
notice by, to person drawn as juror ... p. 387 
return by, on venire for appointment of jurors p. 387 
CONTAGIOUS DISEASES, 

persons infected with to be removed from town or kept 

isolated 1105-1110,1114,1115 

regulations concerning 1104-1115 

means taken to prevent the spread of .... 1134-1137 

records of, to be kept 1138,1139 

expenses incurred in suppressing, provisions concerning 1140, 

1141, 1143 
certain provisions concerning, not to apply to small-pox 1 1 42 
paupers having, not to be removed to state almshouse < 727 



472 INDEX. 

CORPORATIONS, 

towns are 1-3 

COUNSEL, 

towns may employ at legislative hearings 12 

COUNTY COMMISSIONERS, 

election and terms of office of 302 

COUNTY TREASURERS, 

election and terms of office of 304 

DEATHS, 

certified copy of certain, to be made by town clerk . . 387 
parents and others to give notice of, to town clerk . . 389 
certificate of, to be furnished by physician when re- 
quested 390 

sextons and others to make returns of, to town clerks . 391 

fees of town clerks for certificates of 369 

in state almshouse, town clerks are exempt from record- 
ing ' 397 

form for return of to town clerk , p. 150 

physician's certificate of p. 150 

town clerk's certificate of the registry of a . . . . p. 151 

form for permission to remove body p. 151 

(See also Births, Marriages, and Deaths.) 
DISCOUNT, 

on taxes; form of notice of rates of p. 219 

(See Taxes.) 
DISEASED CATTLE, 

shall be isolated 1169 

notice to be given to boards of health of 1174 

land and barns for purpose of isolating, may be taken . 1177 
regulations made by cattle commissioners concerning . 1178 
appraisements of value of, to be made in writing to 
boards of health * 1179 

DISTRICT ATTORNEYS, 

election and terms of office of 297 

DISTRICTS, 

towns may authorize to perform certain municipal acts . 41 

certain provisions to apply 42 

officers in 43 

may adopt by-laws, sue and be sued, etc 44 



INDEX. 473 

DOGS, 

to be licensed 401 

licenses for, to be issued after May 1st, when .... 402 

fee for license for, determined . . 403 

licenses of, when kept for breeding purposes . . . . 404 

to contain description, etc., of hydrophobia . 405 
town clerks to give bonds for money received for licenses 

of 406 

licenses of, by whom issued 407 

valid in all parts of state 409 

lists of, to be made by assessors 410 

unlicensed, to be killed . 579 

number of, killed, to be returned to selectmen .... 580 

form of warrant for killing 581 

loss of sheep or other domestic animals from worrying by 582 

reward for killing troublesome 584 

owner of, may be ordered to kill if troublesome . . . 585 

may be muzzled 586, 587 

money received from licenses for, to be paid into town 

treasury, in Suffolk County 588 

unexpended money from licenses for, how appropriated . 589 

towns may make by-laws concerning the licensing of . . 590 

DRAINS. (See Sewers and Drains.) 

DRAW-BRIDGES, 

by-laws as to regulation of 59 

draw-tender to be appointed • . . 60 

DRILL HALLS, 

selectmen shall provide in certain cases 1284 

DRINKING-TROUGHS, 

selectmen may establish and maintain ....... 49 

EELS. (See Shell-Fish.) 
ELECTION APPARATUS, 

towns shall be provided with by secretary 230 

ELECTION OFFICERS, 

appointment of by selectmen in certain towns . . . . 216 

proceedings in case of vacancies 217 

certain persons ineligible for, at state elections . . . , 218 
if certain, are absent, their deputies shall perform their 

duties 219 



474 INDEX. 

ELECTION OFFICERS — continued. 

shall be sworn .• . 220 

shall attend in their respective voting precincts . . . 226 

compensation of 226 

shall make no statements concerning elections .... 258 
place no distinguishing marks on ballots . . . . 267 
make no statements regarding votes which they re- 
count „ . 294 

ELECTIONS, 

definition of terms used in statutes relating to . . . . 142 
persons receiving highest number of votes, to be declared 

elected 143 

Sundays and holidays excluded in reckoning time in . . 144 

Indians are entitled to vote at 145 

lists and notices relating to, to be posted near voting 

lists 146 

officers of 216-227 

blank forms and apparatus for, to be provided . . 230-236 
time of, for national, state, and county officers .... 252 

town meetings for 253, 254 

certificates of 279-289 

form of certificates of, for state representative . . . . 287 

ELECTRICITY, 

towns may manufacture and distribute 74 

(See Gas.) 

ENGINEERS, 

appointment of 518 

organization of 519 

powers of 520 

duties of 523 

may make certain rules 524, 525 

beginning of terms of, may be changed, and current terms 

of, abridged 527, 528 

shall designate boards of survey to inspect buildings . . 141 

ENGINEMEN, 

appointed in certain towns 502 

number of, to each engine 503 

a certain number of axe-men may be selected from . . 504 

to choose officers at annual meeting in May 505 

meetings of companies of 506 

may be appointed to private engines 507-509 



INDEX. 475 

ENGINEMEN — continued. 

may be discharged if negligent 511 

compensation of 512 

organization of 521 

privileges and duties of engineers appointed by . . . 522 

EXEMPTIONS, 

from taxation, what persons and property are subject to 

660-664 

EXPLOSIVE COMPOUNDS, 

towns may regulate manufacture, storage, sale, etc. of . 461 

licenses may be granted for sale and use of 462 

when used in toy pistols, may be regulated . . . . . 463 

defined 464 

FENCE-VIEWERS, 

town shall elect two or more, at annual town meeting . 307 
shall survey partition fences where there is a controversy 

concerning them 1182, 1183 

shall assign to each owner his share 1184 

penalty for not accepting assignments of 1185 

may order compensation for repairing more than just 

share 1186 

duties of, when lands are bounded by water . . . .1188 
may make a division when lands have been occupied in 

common 1189 

fences to be maintained as assigned by 1190 

value of unimproved lauds which are enclosed to be de- 
termined by 1192 

may determine in certain cases if fence is needed, and 

may establish division lines 1193 

shall assign a time in which division fences may be built 1194 

when fences are on town lines 1195 

penalty on, for neglect of duty 1197 

fees of, how paid and recovered 1198 

form for complaint to . . p. 424 

notice to adverse party by p. 424 

award of p. 424 

certificate of sufficiency of fence by ... p. 424 
notice and award of, when right of occupants in 

partition fence is in dispute p. 425 

notice issued by, when lands are divided by 

water, and their determination . . . . p. 426 
(See Fences.) 



476 INDEX. 

FENCES, 

what shall be legal 1180 

adjoining occupants to maintain 1181 

partition not to be taken away when enclosed lands are 

laid open; how kept 1187, 1191 

water, how made 1196 

(See Fence-Viewers.) 

FIELD DRIVERS, 

towns shall elect two or more at annual town meeting . 307 

beasts going at large without a keeper to be taken up by 1199 

beasts distrained by, to be impounded 1200 

in certain towns shall be considered to be pound keepers 1205 

fees of 1206 

may retake escaped or rescued beasts 1216 

form for notice by, to owner of beasts impounded . . p. 429 

FIRE CLUBS, 

not to be established except, etc 549 

FIRE DEPARTMENTS, 

may be organized ..516 

certain apparatus for saving life required 517 

acts establishing, not to take effect until accepted . . . 526 

FIRE DISTRICTS, 

fire departments may be established in, in certain towns . 529 

proceedings to establish fire departments in 530 

how organized 531-533 

engineers, how chosen by 534 

meetings of, how called and conducted 535 

check-lists for elections in 536, 537 

certain election laws to apply to 538 

may raise money for purchase of engines, etc 539 

shall choose a treasurer 540, 541 

assessment and collection of money voted to be raised by 542 

duties and privileges of engineers of 543—545 

by-laws of, imposing penalties to be approved .... 546 

may exclude particular persons or estates 547 

heretofore organized, certain provisions as to . . . . 548 

FIRE INQUESTS, 

shall be held when fire appears to have been caused by 

design 550, 551 

fees and expenses of . . . . . 552 



INDEX. 477 

FIREMEN'S ASSOCIATIONS, 

towns may lease public buildings to . „ 9 

FIRES, 

extinguishment of ..... , 490-499 

towns may use water of aqueduct corporations in case of 498 
provisions made by selectmen for taking water in case of 499 

FIREWARDS, 

selectmen may appoint 490 

shall file acceptance of appointment with town clerk . . 490 

shall attend at fires 491 

with selectmen may order buildings demolished . 492, 494 

may command assistance . 495 

may give orders to enginemen and others 496 

back fires may be set by, to preserve woodlands . . . 497 

FISHERIES, 

regulation of, by towns 1250-1267 

FISHING ASSOCIATIONS, 

shall obtain authority from selectmen before doing business 472 

FISH WARDENS, 

to be appointed in towns on certain rivers ..... 1254 

FISH WEIRS, 

town officers may authorize , , 1258 

FOOTWAYS, 

may be laid out as town ways are laid out 814 

FOREST FIREWARDS, 

to be appointed 500 

duties of ... 501 

FORESTS, 

towns may vote to preserve ..126 

FORMS AND RULES, 

voting list for registrars p. 55 

form of blank books for registrars p. 58 

certificate of election p. 103 

rules for conducting town meetings .... pp. 131-137 
warrant of town clerk to constables to notify town officers 

to take oath of office p. 142 

certificate of marriage p. 149 

intention of marriage p. 150 

return of a birth to town clerk p. 150 

return of death to town clerk p. 150 

physician's certificate of death .••«,„•.. p. 150 



478 INDEX. 

FORMS AND RULES — continued. 

town clerk's certificate of the registry of a death . . p. 151 
appointment of persons to appraise lost goods or stray 

beasts p. 154 

warrant for calling annual town meeting p. 161 

warrants for calling town meeting to vote for governor, 

etc., state representative, representative to Congress p. 162 
notice to selectmen to perambulate boundary lines be- 
tween towns p. 162 

appointment of substitute to perambulate boundary lines 

between towns p. 162 

warrant for killing dogs p. 196 

rules for assessing taxes p. 203 

valuation list p. 209 

table of aggregates p. 209 

notice to bring in lists of polls and estates for taxation p. 214 
certificate of oath administered to person bringing in tax- 
ation list p. 215 

request for information made to assessors of town from 

which tax-payer has removed; reply to same . . p. 215 

tax-list p. 216 

warrant from assessors to collectors p. 217 

notice of rates of discount posted by assessors when they 

commit their warrant to collector p. 219 

notice to a town that pauper whose settlement is in such 

town is chargeable to that town ; reply to same . p. 275 
certificate of school committee of number of children in 

schools, and sums raised for support of schools . . p. 327 

bond to be given by collectors p. 361 

demand of tax by collector p. 361 

notice of sale of distrained property by collectors . . p. 362 
notice of adjournment of sale by collector . . . . p. 362- 
certificate to be made by collectors on warrant when cor- 
porate stock is seized for taxes p. 362 

certificate to be given by collectors when they make com- 
mitments p. 362 

collector's warrant to distrain or commit for taxes . p. 363 
certificate to be endorsed on warrant when commitments 

are made by collectors p. 364 

demand of tax on real estate by collectors .... p. 364 
notice of sale of real estate to be published by collectors 
in newspaper p. 365 



INDEX. 479 

FORMS AND RULES — continued. 

notice to be posted on premises sold for taxes by col- 
lectors p. 365 

affidavit of demand of taxes by collectors, etc. . . . p. 365 
affidavit by collectors, etc., when demand for taxes is 

made on two or more persons p. 366 

affidavit of posting and publishing advertisement of sale 

for taxes by collectors, etc p. 366 

deed by collectors of real estate sold for taxes . . . p. 367 
deed by collectors when town is purchaser of real estate 

sold for taxes p. 369 

deed of real estate sold for taxes by collectors to towns 

when purchaser fails to pay, etc p. 370 

notice of intention to take real estate by collectors . p. 371 
affidavit of demand and notice to be annexed to instru- 
ment of taking of real estate for taxes .... p. 371 
taking of real estate for taxes by collectors . . . .p. 372 
deed by town when estate is redeemed by payment of 

taxes p. 373 

receipt by collectors to mortgagee '. . p. 374 

receipt by collector to mortgagees who have paid sums 

due p. 374 

notice of sale of unredeemed real estate in behalf of town 

within period for redemption p. 375 

deed of unredeemed tax title by collectors . . . . p. 376 
affidavit of collectors of non-appearance of purchaser, or 

failure to pay sum bid p. 377 

notice by assessors to collectors when tax title is deemed 

invalid p. 377 

notice by collectors to holder of title p. 378 

bond to be given by town treasurers p. 380 

return on warrant for town meeting by constables . p. 387 
notice by constable to person drawn as juror ... p. 387 
return by constable on venire for appointment of jurors p. 387 
complaint to fence viewers by owner of land that fence 
between his land and the adjoining is insufficient ; no- 
tice by fence viewers to adverse party in same com- 
plaint p. 424 

award of fence viewers p. 424 

certificate of sufficiency and appraisal of fence when oc- 
cupant of adjoining lot has neglected to comply with 
directions of fence viewers p. 424 



480 INDEX. 

FORMS AND RULES — continued. 

notice of fence viewers when right of occupants in parti- 
tion fence is in dispute, and their award .... p. 425 
notice by fence viewers when lands are divided by water, 

and their determination p. 426 

notice by field drivers to owner of beasts taken up and 

impounded p. 429 

memorandum to be left with pound keeper . . . . p. 429 
appointment of persons by town clerks to determine dam- 
ages done by beasts taken up and impounded . . p. 434 
certificate of elders, etc., to exempt Quakers, etc., from 

military duty p. 449 

enlistment roll p. 451 

oath to be administered by mustering officers to militia p. 452 
precept issued by selectmen to commander of militia . p. 455 

FURNACES. (See Steam Engines, Furnaces, and Boilers.) 



GAS, 



towns may manufacture and distribute 74 

subject to approval of vote of two town meetings ... 75 
votes to be certified to gas commissioners .... 76, 77 

may issue bonds for the manufacture of 78 

receipts to be paid to town treasurer . 78 

expenses to be paid out of town treasury 78 

may extend or enlarge plant 79 

assessment upon owner or occupant of premises ... 80 

remedy for parties aggrieved by refusal of town to supply 81 

manager to be appointed who shall give a bond . . . 82 

books and accounts to be kept 83 

return to be given to commissioners by manager and 

selectmen 83 

price not to be fixed at less than cost 84 

deposit may be required from taker 84 

notice of price of light to be certified to commissioners . 85 

purchase of plants already established 86 

rights of previous owner to cease when town acquires 

plant 87 

responsibility for injury or damage 88 

general laws to apply 89 

towns may revoke locations for wires, pipes, etc., in streets 90 



INDEX. 481 

GRAIN, 

measurers of 425 and note 

GRAND ARMY OF THE REPUBLIC, 

towns may lease public buildings to 9 

GRAND JURORS, 

how drawn 577 

deficiency in number of, how supplied 578 

GUARD RAILS, 

to be provided in voting places 229 

no one allowed inside of, except, etc 259 

number of voters allowed inside of, and time allowed 

them for depositing their ballots 259 

GUIDE-POSTS, 

to be erected in ways 794 

selectmen and road commissioners to report location of . 795 

towns to determine places for ......... 796 

description of 797 

HAWKERS AND PEDLERS, 

certain articles may be sold by, without a license . . . 486 

when they are minors, towns may regulate sales by . . 487 

licenses of, and fees for licenses to . 488 

fees for licenses of, to go to town treasurer 488 

certain provisions as to licenses of 489 

HAY, 

weighers of 62 

inspectors of 425 and note 

HEADSTONES, 

may be erected by towns at graves of soldiers .... 11 

HEALTH OFFICERS, 

towns may choose 1078 

HERRINGS, 

towns may create and own fisheries for alewives and 1255, 1256 

HIGHWAYS AND TOWN WAYS, 

to be kept in repair at expense of town .... 772, 776 

time of expenditure of money voted to repair .... 782 

penalty on towns for neglect to repair ...... 789 

rights of certain corporations in 790 

fences, when deemed boundaries of 791 

shade trees may be planted in ; how removed .... 793 

guide-posts in 794-797 

31 



482 INDEX. 

HISTORIES, 

towns may vote money for publishing their 11 

HOSEMEN, 

to be appointed in certain towns 510 

HOSPITALS, 

town may erect for care of sick poor 702 

contract with, for care of sick paupers . . . 703 

may be provided by towns 1131 

to be under orders of boards of health 1131 

not to be near dwelling-house 1131 

physicians in, to be subject to orders of boards of health 1132 
to be provided if dangerous disease breaks out . . . .1133 

IMPOUNDING CATTLE, 

notice to be given by person impounding . . .1210, 1211 
sum due from owner for, how determined . . . 1212, 1213 
if sum due from owner for, is not paid, beasts to be sold 

1214, 1215 
form for appointment of persons to determine damages 

done by beasts impounded p. 434 

INDEBTEDNESS, TOWN, 

only to be incurred in certain manner 96 

water debt and sinking fund to be omitted in ascertaining 

limit of indebtedness 97 

certain provisions not to apply to debts for aid to rail- 
roads or to water scrip 98 

not to exceed three per cent of valuation 99 

certain towns may increase debt limit one per cent . . 100 
temporary loans in anticipation of taxes . . . . 101, 102 
debts to be incurred only by two-thirds vote . . . . 103 

to be made payable within what periods 104 

interest to be raised by taxation 105 

sinking fund commissioners to be appointed . . 106-108 

sinking fund established ,. . . 105, 108, 109 

payment of debt at earlier period not prohibited . . . 110 
debts not to be increased beyond three per cent limit by 

town subscriptions to railroads Ill 

town shall raise by taxation sufficient to pay interest on 

debts incurred by subscriptions to railroads . . . . 114 

towns may issue new securities for old 115 

annual proportionate payments instead of sinking fund . 116 
bonds, notes, and scrip may be issued by a town . . . 117 



INDEX. 483 

INDIANS, 

are entitled to vote 145 

provision for support of destitute 724 

INFANTS, 

deserted and destitute, may be placed in certain asylums 704 
persons taking, to board to be under regulations of board 

of health 1121, 1122 

boarding-houses for, to be licensed . . . . . 1123-1125 

INNHOLDERS, 

licenses of, how granted 433 

contents of licenses of 434 

expiration of licenses of 435 

licenses of, only granted upon certain conditions . . . 436 

penalty on, for refusing to receive travellers .... 438 

licenses of, to be revoked when 440 

not to be licensed if credit is given to students by 441, 442 

no fee for license for 443 

shall be furnished with laws which relate to .... 444 

INSPECTION OF BUILDINGS, 

towns may regulate construction, materials, etc., of build- 
ings 138 

rules for size and material for buildings in certain towns 139 

buildings not conforming to be deemed nuisances . . 140 

selectmen may designate board of survey for buildings . 141 

INTELLIGENCE OFFICES, 

licenses to keep, may be granted 445 

(See Billiard-Tables and Bowling-Alleys.) 

INTEREST, 

may be added to taxes in certain cases 629 

INTOXICATING LIQUOR, 

ballots for voting on question of licenses for sale of, to be 

provided by state in certain cases 328 

JUNK, OLD METALS, AND SECOND-HAND ARTICLES, 

licenses for the sale of may be granted 446 

towns may make rules for dealers in 447 

rules to be expressed in licenses for the sale of . . . 448 
(See Billiard-Tables and Bowling- Alleys.) 

JURORS, 

selectmen to prepare list of 561 

list of, to be posted up, and altered or approved by town 562 



484 INDEX. 

JURORS — continued. 

names on list of, to be put into a box 563 

name of person convicted, etc., to be withdrawn from list 

of 564 

qualifications of 565 

persons absolutely exempt from being 566 

to serve but once in three years, except in certain coun- 
ties 567, 568 

venires for 569, 570 

selected by drawing names 571 

names of, when and how drawn 572 

date of each draft for, to be indorsed on ballot . . . . 573 

may be drawn in town meeting . . . 574 

meetings for drawing, when held 575 

how summoned 576 

LIBRARIES, 

towns may establish and maintain public . . . 11, 63, 64 

trustees for 66-72 

books for, provided by library commissioners .... 73 

LIME, 

inspectors of 62 and note 

LISTS, 

of polls and personal property to be brought to assessors 601 

real estate may be included in 601 

time of bringing in, may be extended for cause . . . 604 

shall be sworn to 605 

to be held to be true, unless, etc 606 

when not brought in, estimate to be made of property 607-609 
amount last assessed to executor, etc., to be taken unless 

he brings in a 610 

of polls and estates, form of notice to bring in . . . p. 214 
form of oath administered to person 

bringing in . * p. 215 

LOCK-UPS, 

to be provided by towns 36 

keepers to be appointed for 37, 38 

to be accessible at all hours 40 

LOST GOODS, STRAY BEASTS, AND UNCLAIMED 
PROPERTY, 

finder of lost goods or money, to give notice, etc. . . . 411 
when stray beasts are taken up, notice to be given . . 412 



INDEX. 485 

LOST GOODS, STRAY BEASTS, AND UNCLAIMED 
PROPERTY — continued. 

as to strays taken up within a certain distance from Bos- 
ton 413 

lost goods above certain value, to be appraised . . . 414 

form of appointment of persons to appraise lost goods p. 154 
LUMBER, 

surveyors of 62 and note 

LYING-IN HOSPITALS, 

licenses for keeping 1120 

MARBLE AND FREESTONE, 

surveyors of 425 

MARKING-SHELVES, 

a certain number of, to be provided in each voting-place 229 
MARRIAGES, 

duties of town clerks as to intentions of, certificates of, 

etc 364-369 

fees of town clerks for entering intentions of, and issuing 

certificates of 369 

form for certificate of p. 149 

form for intention of . p. 150 

(See also Births, Marriages, and Deaths.) 

MASTERS, APPRENTICES, AND SERVANTS, 

duties of overseers of poor concerning .... 738-742 

McTAMMANY BALLOT MACHINES, 

towns may purchase 231 

MEMORIAL DAY, 

to be observed in the public schools 880 

MILITIA, 

law of, in its relation to towns , 1268-1301 

persons liable to be enrolled in 1268 

certain persons exempt from enrollment in . 1269, 1270, 1272 
subject to no active duty except in case of war, etc. . . 1273 
enrollment of persons subject to duty in the . . 1274, 1275 
calling out of the, and organizing for active duty . 1276-1282 

armories for the 1283-1289 

tours of duty, inspection and drills of the . . . 1290-1301 
penalty for not appearing when drafted in the . . . .1277 
organization of new companies ......... 1278 



486 INDEX. 

MILITIA — continued. 

eligibility to election or appointment in the 1279 

form of enlistment roll 1280 

oaths of office for the 1281 

uniform of the 1282 

may be ordered out in certain cases 1290 

drills and encampments of 1294-1297 

shall not parade without permission 1298 

bounds of parade of, fixed by commanding officers . .1299 
no other bodies of armed men to parade, except, etc. . 1301 

MILK, 

inspectors of 425, and note 

MODERATORS, 

shall be chosen at town meeting 343 

conduct of meeting during election of ... . 
check-list used in election of, at certain meetings 
shall preside in and regulate town meetings . 
no person to speak without leave of ... . 
may prevent disorderly conduct at town meeting 
shall not examine ballots before poll is closed . 
may appoint tellers to aid in counting votes 
shall receive votes of registered voters . . . 
not to receive votes unless presented in person . 
duties of, as to ballots cast by women for school com- 
mittee 354 

when error is claimed in the result of the vote 355 
when another person appears to have been 

elected 355 

as to a recount of votes 292, 293, 355 

shall cause ballots for town officers to be publicly enclosed 

in envelopes, etc 324 

duties of, in case of errors in election of town officers . 324 
rules for, for conducting town meetings* . . . pp. 131-137 

MONUMENTS, 

to be erected between contiguous towns 419 

MUSICIANS, 

regulation of itinerant . 427 

NAPTHA, 

by-laws concerning keeping 61 



. 344 

. 345 

. 346 

. 347 

. 348 

. 349 
350, 351 

. 352 

. 353 



INDEX. 487 

NOMINATION PAPERS, 

may be used in certain cases .198 

to be signed in person 199 

women may sign, for candidates for school committee . . 199 

contents of 200 

when and where filed 202, 203 

must have written acceptance of candidate nominated . 203 

held to be valid unless objected to 205 

objections to 206 

shall be open to public inspection 208 

NOMINATIONS, 

of candidates 196-210 

certain conventions of delegates may make 196 

certificates of, to be signed by and sworn to by officers of 

the caucus 197 

may be made by nomination papers 198-200 

to supply vacancies 201, 207 

withdrawals from 204, 207 

blank forms for, to be furnished by secretary . . . . 210 

NOTES, 

town may issue to pay debt 117 

NOTICE, 

to be given to place of pauper's settlement, of expenses 

incurred in his support 696, 708-710 

NUISANCES, 

board of health may make regulations concerning . 1084-1086 
occupant of building containing, ordered to abate . 1087-1089 
may be removed at expense of owner of premises 1090, 1091 
compulsory examination of premises containing . . . 1092 

lands injurious to health deemed to be 1093 

persons injuriously affected by, may apply to board of 

health for abatement 1094-1096 

manner of abatement of 1097-1103 

permits for removal of from town may be granted . . 1104 

OFFAL, 

towns may contract for disposal of 12 

OFFENSIVE TRADES, 

assignment of places for exercising 1146 

for exercising may be revoked by 

superior court 1147 



488 INDEX. 

OFFENSIVE TRADES — continued. 

exercise of may be forbidden 1146, 1149, 1150, 1152-1154 

person injured by exercise of, may have action . . . 1148 

OLD METALS. (See Junk, Old Metals, and Second-hand 

Articles.) 
OVERSEERS OF THE POOR, 

three or more elected at annual town meeting, except as 

otherwise provided 307, 310, 311 

no person to be ineligible to office of, on account of sex 307 
acceptance of statutes relating to election of, may be re- 
voked 311 

in certain cases shall choose a chairman and secretary . 312 

shall cause books to be kept 312 

in certain towns selectmen shall be 415 

care and support of paupers by 690-742 

duties of, as regards town paupers 690-721 

as regards state paupers 722-733 

as regards lunatics 734-737 

as regards masters, apprentices, and servants 738-742 
as regards the settlement of paupers . . 743-749 
as regards workhouses and almshouses . 750-771 
form of notice of, to town chargeable with pauper's 

support p. 275 

OYSTERS, 

permits may be granted to take 1259 

licenses to grow and dig may be granted . 1260-1264, 1266 
planting and growing of, protected where there is no natu- 
ral bed 1262 

time limited for taking away ......... 1267 

PARKS, 

towns may elect board of commissioners for 127 

PARTNERS, 

where taxed * . . . 677, 678 

PAUPERS, 

towns to support 690 

powers and duties of overseers of the poor as regards 691, 693 
insane, commitment and detention of; to have medical 

treatment 692 

certain kindred of, liable to support 694 

expense of support of, may be recovered from . . . . 695 

from other places to be provided with immediate relief . 696 



INDEX. 489 

PAUPERS — continued. 

expenses of support of stranger, may be recovered from 

the town of their settlement 696,697 

notice to be given to place of settlement of, of expenses 

incurred in support of 696 

support and burial of deceased state 698 

temporary aid to state, may be furnished for certain 

periods 699 

from other places may be required to work .... 701 

hospitals for 702-703 

infants who are, to be supported in certain institutions . 704 
minors who are, not to be removed beyond state, except, 

etc 705 

may be removed to place of later settlement, outside the 

state 706 

towns are liable to individuals for support of . . ... 707 
may be removed to place of later settlement; how re- 
moved 708-710 

effects of deceased, may be sold to pay his expenses . . 711 
records of supported, to be kept and returns made 713, 714 
certain inquiries as to, to be answered by overseers 715, 716 

returns to be made of children who are 717 

provisions in regard to bastard children who are . . . 718 
minors who are, not to be removed from town without 

consent of overseers 719 

bodies of, may be used for advancement of anatomical 

science 720, 721 

having no settlement may be removed to state alms- 
house 722,723 

provision for support of Indians when they are . . . 724 
sick, not to be removed to state almshouse, if such removal 

would injure his health 725, 726 

who have infectious diseases not to be sent to state 

almshouse 727 

husband and wife who are, not to be separated . . . 729 
when inmate of almshouse, place of his settlement to be 

liable for his expenses 730 

lunatic, may be removed to where they belong . . . 731 

provisions concerning insane 734-737 

inability to maintain relatives in lunatic asylums, not to 

make persons 745 

settlements of , 743-749 



490 INDEX. 

PAWNBROKERS, 

licenses to 449 

rate of interest of, may be limited 450 

selectmen may examine shops of 451 

PEDLERS. (See Hawkers and Pedlers.) 

PERAMBULATION, 

of town lines, proceedings 5, 417 

notice of, to adjoining towns 418 

of lines of towns adjoining other states 420 

of town lines ; form of notice to selectmen .... p. 162 
form of appointment of substitute for p. 162 

PERSONAL ESTATE, 

to be taxed where owner resides, with certain excep- 
tions 673 

separate tax upon, when held in trust for two or more 

persons 674 

of religious society, where taxed 675 

mortgaged or pledged, where taxed 676 

PETROLEUM, 

inspectors of 425 ? and note 

PICNIC GROVES, 

selectmen may license and regulate 476 

POLICE OFFICERS, 

may be appointed with powers of constables . . . . 321 
names of, or of chief of, to be sent to prison commis- 
sioners 361, 362 

POLLING PLACES, 

cards of instruction and specimen ballots to be posted 

at 255 

order shall be preserved at 261, 262 

POLLS, 

time of opening and closing 254 

POLL TAXES, 

lists of persons subject to, to be made by assessors . . 150 
changes and corrections in lists of persons subject to 150, 151 
lists of, to be sent to registrars and collectors . . . . 151 
street lists of, to be made in certain towns . . . 152, 153 
supplementary and additional assessments of . . 154, 155 

to be entered in tax list of collector 156 

names of persons assessed for, to be entered in the annual 
register 173 



INDEX. 491 

POLL TAXES — continued. 

for state and county taxes, not to exceed $1 . . . . 613 

in certain cases may be abated after one year . . . . 638 

persons subject to 656 

where assessed 665 

PONDS, 

great, towns may hire for cultivating fishes 1250 

measurements of to be recorded with town clerk . 1251 
wholly within the town, selectmen may measure and 

record with town clerk 1252 

how riparian owners on small, may obtain exclusive fish- 
ery in 1253 

POUND KEEPERS, 

shall be appointed annually 1204 

in certain towns field drivers shall be considered to be . 1205 

fees of 1206 

shall not deliver beasts to owner until fees are paid . . 1207 
pay fees to field drivers ......... 1207 

receive a memorandum from the one impounding . 1208 
if beasts are not impounded in town pound, distrainer 

shall give owner a memorandum 1208 

shall not deliver beasts until costs, etc. are paid . . . 1209 
notice to be given, when beasts are impounded . . . .1210 

may retake escaped or rescued beasts 1216 

form for memorandum to be left with p. 429 

POUNDS, 

towns shall establish under penalty . 1203 

beasts going at large or distrained doing damage to be 

impounded in 1200, 1202 

PROBATION OFFICERS, 

appointment of 426 

PROVISIONS, 

inspectors of 425 and note 

PRUDENTIAL AFFAIRS, 

towns may make by-laws for managing 18 

PUBLIC GROUNDS, 

improvement of in towns by certain corporations ... 10 

PUBLIC HEALTH, 

certain provisions concerning p. 409, note 



492 INDEX. 

PUBLIC SCHOOLS, 

to be kept in every town for a certain period . . . . 869 

branches to be taught in 869 

physiology and hygiene to be taught in 870 

high schools to be established in certain towns . . 871-876 
evening schools to be established in certain towns . 877-879 
exercises to be held in, on day preceding Memorial day . 880 

mechanical drawing to be taught iu 881 

industrial schools may be established 882 

nautical, to be established 883 

two or more towns may unite in establishing . . . 884, 885 
for persons over twelve years of age may be established 

886, 887 

female assistants to be appointed in certain 888 

duty of instructors in 889 

selectmen as to attendance in* 890 

towns shall raise money for, under penalty . . . 891-893 

superintendents of, may be appointed 907-909 

attendance of children in «... 936-948 

pupils not to attend, unless vaccinated, or if any member 

of the family is sick with a contagious disease . 945, 946 
color or religious opinions not to exclude scholars from . 947 
PUBLIC SHOWS. (See Theatrical Exhibitions.) 

QUARANTINE, 

towns may singly or jointly establish 1126,1127 

of vessels 1128-1130 

RACE-GROUNDS, 

regulation of, by selectmen 473 

RAILROAD POLICE, 

to be appointed - 481 

copy of appointment of, to be filed with town clerk . . 482 

RAILROADS, 

towns may take stock in 91 

a town may become an associate for the formation of . 92 
person to be authorized to execute vote of town by 

selectmen 93 

subscription to be made within twelve months from vote 94 
a town may raise money by tax or loan to pay for stock 95 
vote of town to subscribe for stock in, to be sent to sec- 
retary and railroad commissioners 360 



INDEX. 493 

EAILROADS — continued. 

directors to submit map, etc., of, to selectmen .... 477 
route of, to be agreed upon by directors and selectmen . 478 
branch of, not to be laid in public way without consent 

of selectmen 479 

condition of road of, to be examined on complaint of 

selectmen 480 

police for, to be appointed 481, 482 

ways may be laid out across, under certain conditions . 808 

READING-ROOMS, 

may be established by towns . . . . , . . . . 8, 11 

REAL ESTATE, 

subsequently divided, apportionment of taxes on . 643, 644 

where and to whom taxed 667 

certain mortgages to be taxable as 668-670 

of deceased person, where assessed 671, 672 

of religious society, where taxed 675 

taxes assessed and re-assessed on, to constitute a lien on 

993, 994 
sale of, for taxes 993-1028 

RECOGNIZANCES, 

by towns 50 

RECOUNT, 

duties of moderator as to a, in an election of town offi- 
cers 355 

REGISTERS OF DEEDS, 

election and terms of office of 300 

provision as to vacancies or failures to elect in county of 
Nantucket 305 

REGISTERS OF PROBATE AND INSOLVENCY. 

election and terms of office of 299 

REGISTRARS OF BIRTHS, MARRIAGES, AND DEATHS, 

may be chosen by certain towns 399 

REGISTRARS OF VOTERS, 

appointment of, and terms of, in certain towns . . 158, 159 
the two leading political parties to be equally represented 

in board of 160, 161 

vacancies in board of, how filled 162, 163 

shall swear to faithfully perform their duties .... 164 
compensation of 164 



494 INDEX. 

REGISTRARS OF VOTERS — continued. 

qualifications for office of 165 

form of voting list for p. 55 

quarters for, to be provided by towns 166 

sessions of 166, 167 

not to register any one after time for registration has 

ceased 170 

shall post notices of the time and place for registration . 171 

general register of voters to be kept by 172 

blank books for general register to be furnished to . . 172 
shall enter in annual register persons assessed for a poll 

tax 173 

one member of the board of, may examine applicants for 

registration under oath 174, 175 

shall require applicant to read and write 175 

require naturalized citizen to produce his papers . 177 
place applicant's name on register, if satisfied as to 

his qualifications 178 

notify applicant of refusal to register him . . . 179 

revision and correction of registers by 180 

hearings of complaints of illegal or incorrect registration 

by 181, 182 

shall send notices of errors to assessors 183 

not act in secret 184 

records of, to be kept open for public inspection . . . 184 

complaints and certificates received by, to be preserved . 184 
shall have authority to enforce order at their sessions 185, 186 

preparation of voting lists by 188-195 

shall certify to secretary number of assessed polls, regis- 
tered voters, etc 194 

furnish copies of voting lists for caucuses . . . 195 

post voting lists, etc., in public places 246 

preserve used voting lists 278 

REGISTRATION, 

of voters 166-187 

shall cease, when 168 

sessions for, on days other than the regular elections . 169 
certificates and tax bills to be prima facie evidence of resi- 
dence for . 176 

ability to read and write a prerequisite for 175 

supervisors of 187 



INDEX. 495 

REPORT, 

annual, of a town to be returned to state librarian . . 28, 29 
REPRESENTATIVES IN CONGRESS, 

time of election of 296 

REWARD, 

for apprehension of certain criminals 422 

method of payment of 423 

ROAD COMMISSIONERS, 

town may elect in certain cases at annual town meeting, 

except as otherwise provided 307,313 

duties of 314 

shall cause trees and obstructions to be removed from 

ways 783 

not remove certain fences 784 

not turn water-courses so as to incommode house- 
holder .. 785 

may contract for repairing ways 786 

take land for protection of ways and bridges 5 . . 787 

shall pay damages occasioned by repairs 788 

may authorize planting of shade-trees in ways .... 793 

shall report locations for guide-posts 795 

may lay out or alter ways 798 

shall give notice before laying out or altering ways . . 800 
record laying out and alteration of ways with town 

clerk 809 

close ways not laid out according to law .... 817 

ascertain location of way where it is uncertain . . 818 

mark with monuments the angles and ends of ways 819 

may take earth and gravel for constructing ways . . . 820 

lay out and maintain sewers and drains . . . . 821 

establish sidewalks 830 

SAILORS, 

shipwrecked, to be supported at expense of town . . . 700 
SCHOOL COMMITTEES, 

towns shall choose at annual town meeting ..... 307 

women may vote for members of ........ 148 

endorsements of ballots cast by women for . . . . . 354 

how chosen ; women to be eligible for 862 

vacancies in, how filled 863 

proceedings in case members refuse to serve when elected 864 



496 INDEX. 

SCHOOL COMMITTEES — continued. 

terms of service of persons filling vacancies in ... . 865 
certain duties of old to continue on election of new . . 866 

how increased or diminished 867 

shall appoint a secretary and keep records 868 

general duties of 862-906 

superintendents of schools to be appointed by . , 907-909 

duties of, as regards schoolhouses 910-914 

school registers and returns by 921-935 

duties of, as regards attendance of children in schools 936-948 

as regards truant children and absentees 949-955 

shall select and contract with teachers .... 894, 895 

teachers may be elected to serve during pleasure of 896, 898 

shall give certificates to teachers 897 

visit schools at stated times without notice . . . 899 
require daily reading of the Bible in schools . . 900 
direct what books shall be used, and shall prescribe 

course of studies 901, 902 

purchase text-books for use of scholars . . 903, 904 
duties of, in respect to high schools in certain towns . . 905 
compensation of 906 

SCHOOL FUND, 

distribution of 915 

income of, at what time to be apportioned and paid . . 916 
distribution of, only to be made to towns complying with 

law 917 

income of, how applied 918 

for Indians, how to be applied by certain towns . . . 919 

schoolhouses for Indians to be property of towns . . . 920 

SCHOOLHOUSES, 

towns shall provide 910 

location of 911 

land may be taken for lots for 912 

must be kept clean and well ventilated * 914 

SCHOOL REGISTERS AND RETURNS, 

town clerks to deliver to school committee 921 

form of certificate of school committee 925 

how kept 935 

SCHOOLS, 

towns may hold property in trust for the support of . . 8 

may vote money for support of 11 



INDEX. 497 

SCHOOL RETURNS. (See School Registers and Returns.) 

SCRIP, 

town may issue to pay debt 117 

SEALERS OF WEIGHTS AND MEASURES, 

appointment of 1217 

shall receive from town treasurer a set of standards and 

a seal . 1223 

accountable to towns for preservation of standards . . 1223 
when more than one, additional sets of standards to be 

provided 1224 

shall each have a seal ; form of seals of 1225 

give annual notice for weights, etc., to be brought in 

to be adjusted and sealed 1226 

go to houses or stores, when persons neglect to 

comply with notice 1227 

test hay and coal scales, etc., annually .... 1228 
may be requested by any persons to test weights, etc., at 

office . . . ." 1229 

mark with stencils weights, etc., that cannot be 

sealed 1230 

shall be furnished with duplicate sets of weights, etc. . .1231 
may seize without a warrant such weights, etc., as are 

necessary for evidence 1232 

shall examine and test weights, etc., complained of as be- 
ing incorrect 1233 

condemned weights, etc., to be marked in certain manner 

by 1234 

may examine weights, etc., believed to have been altered 

since sealed 1235 

fees of 1236 

may be paid a salary 1237 

shall test, etc., apparatus for linear measurements . 1243-1246 

may seize and destroy illegal measures 1247 

SEALS, 

for use in elections to be furnished to voting precincts . 235 
SECOND-HAND ARTICLES. (See Junk, Old Metals, and 

Second-Hand Articles.) 
SELECTMEN, 
Miction of, 

three or more elected at annual town meeting, except as 
otherwise provided 307, 308, 311 



498 INDEX. 

SELECTMEN — continued. 

acceptance of statutes relating to election of, may be re- 
voked 311 

Duties of, in General. 

shall appoint keepers of lock-ups 37 

majority of, shall certify to auditor payments of state 

aid 134 

may remove building not built in conformity with the 

law 140 

shall designate board of survey for buildings . . . . 141 
may appoint a superintendent of streets in certain towns 315 
police officers, with powers of constables . 321 
shall give notice to assessors of receipt and approval of 

bond of collector or treasurer 322 

may appoint treasurer or collector pro tempore, in certain 

cases 333 

declare office of treasurer or collector vacant, in case 

of failure to give bonds 333 

fill vacancies in certain town offices 335 

shall declare election of town clerk pro tempore . . . 358 

may appoint a town clerk in certain cases 359 

shall have town records bound . 375 

provide fire-proof safes for town records . . . 376 
be assessors of taxes and overseers of poor in certain 

towns 415 

penalty for acting if not under oath 416 

perambulation of town lines by 5, 416-421 

may offer reward for detection of one who has committed 

a capital crime 422, 423 

compensation of 423, note 

may make rules for regulation of carriages 424 

appointment of certain officers by 425 

may appoint probation officers 426 

regulate itinerant musicians . . * 427 

have guardians appointed for spendthrifts .... 428 

preservation of shade trees by 429, 430 

designation of persons to bury deceased soldiers by 431, 432 

certain licenses granted by 433-476 

duties of, as regards railroads 477-482 

as to auctioneers, hawkers, and pedlers . 483-489 
as to fires, fire departments, and fire districts 

490-556 



INDEX. 499 

SELECTMEN — continued. 

duties of, as to the suppression of common nuisances 557-560 

as regards jurors 561-578 

concerning dogs ........ 579-590 

shall endeavor to keep up the attendance in schools . . 890 
in certain towns may appoint weighers for boilers and 

machinery 1242 

form for warrant for calling annual town meeting 

by p. 161 

warrants for calling town meetings for elections 

by p. 162 

notice to, to perambulate boundary lines . . p. 162 
appointment of substitutes by, to perambulate 
boundary lines p. 162 

In Elections. 

shall appoint registrars of voters in certain towns . . . 158 
together with town clerk, constitute registrars of 

voters in certain towns 159 

file map and report of proposed voting precincts 

with town clerk 211 

in certain towns shall appoint certain election officers 216, 21 
shall preside at meetings for election of state officers in 

certain towns 222 

in certain elections shall appoint ballot clerks .... 223 

may appoint tellers at elections 224 

a town clerk pro tempore, to act in elec- 
tions 225 

shall provide suitable voting places, and post up descrip- 
tions of them 228 

voting places with marking-shelves, a guard 
rail, and proper facilities for marking 

ballots 229 

may make regulations concerning election apparatus . . 234 
provisions regarding the receiving of ballots . 260 

shall examine copies of records of votes 280 

in certain towns shall examine records of votes for state 

representative 284 

duties of, in regard to certifying election of state repre- 
sentative 284, 285, 287 

may make regulations as to counting votes 289 

duties of, in regard to recounts of votes . ... 290-294 



500 INDEX. 

SELECTMEN — continued. 
As to Fisheries. 

may measure ponds wholly within towns 1252 

chairman of, to be one of board to determine fishery 

rights of riparian owners on certain ponds . . . 1253 

may authorize construction of fish-weirs 1258 

give permits and grant licenses to take oysters 1259, 1260 
designate constables to prosecute violation of laws 

relating to shell-fisheries 1265 

As to the Militia. 

shall provide drill halls in certain cases 1284 

transmit to adjutant-general amount paid for rent 

for armories 1289 

in case of riot, etc., may issue precepts to commander of 

militia 1290 

shall provide carriages for baggage, etc., for the militia . 1293 
As to Public Health. 

in certain cases shall constitute boards of health . . . 1078 

may grant injunctions against polluting water supply . 1157 

shall enforce vaccination 1117 

may license persons to keep lying-in hospitals . . . .1120 
grant licenses to maintain boarding-houses for in- 
fants 1125 

shall use all means to prevent spread of contagious dis- 
eases 1134 

As to Streets and Ways. 

shall assign limits to surveyors 777 

may take land for protection of ways and bridges . . . 787 

shall pay damages occasioned by repairs of ways . . . 788 

may authorize planting of shade trees in ways .... 793 

shall report locations for guide-posts 795 

may lay out or alter ways 798 

shall give notice before laying out or discontinuing ways 800 
record laying out and alteration of ways with town 

clerk 809 

close ways not laid out according to law . . . . 817 

ascertain location of way where it is uncertain . . 818 

mark with monuments the ends and angles of ways 819 

may take earth and gravel for constructing ways . . . 820 

lay out sewers and drains 821 

establish sidewalks 830 



INDEX. 501 

SELECTMEN — continued. 

duties of, as regards street railways 842-855 

as regards telegraph companies . . . 856-861 
In Town Meetings. 

shall call town meetings in pursuance of a warrant . . 340 
a part of the board of, may in certain cases call town 

meetings = 341 

shall preside at meeting at certain times during election 

of moderator 344 

SERVANTS, 

duties of overseers concerning 738-742 

SETTLEMENTS, 

how acquired . 743 

of married women 743, cl. 1 

legitimate children 743, cl. 2 

illegitimate children 743, cl. 3 

by having a freehold estate 743, cl. 4 

residence and paying taxes 743, cl. 5 

women 743, els. 6, 7 

serving one year in certain town offices . . . 743, cl. 8 

of settled and ordained ministers -. 743, cl. 9 

apprentices 743, cl. 10 

soldiers and sailors 743, cl. 11 

where to be on division or incorporation of towns 743, cl. 12 
not acquired while receiving relief as a pauper . . 744, 745 

as to persons who have begun to acquire 746 

shall continue until lost, etc 747 

expenses of sick convicts to be paid by places where 

they have 748, 749 

SEWAGE, 

towns may take land for the disposal of ... . 821-823 
SEWER COMMISSIONERS, 

in certain cases may be elected at annual town meeting, 

except as otherwise provided 307,318 

duties of 319 

SEWERS AND DRAINS, 

selectmen or road commissioners may lay out and main- 
tain 821 

assessment of persons entering drains into main . 824-826 

towns may adopt a system of 825 

how to be constructed 826 



502 INDEX. 

SEWERS AND DRAINS — continued. 

plans of, to be recorded with town clerk 828 

notice to be given before opening any 829 

assessments for may be apportioned 834 

SHADE TREES, 

towns may vote money for planting 15 

preservation of 429 

method of designation of 430 

under certain restrictions may be planted in ways . . 793 

SHELL-FISH, 

towns may regulate taking of eels and 1257 

violations of laws relating to, may be prosecuted by 

selectmen 1265 

SHERIFFS, 

election and terms of office of 303 

SICK, 

towns may contract for care of 12 

SIDEWALKS, 

selectmen and road commissioners may establish . . . 830 

expense of, how paid 830 

not to be obstructed except in certain cases 831 

construction and expense of construction of . . . 832, 833 

assessments for, may be apportioned 834 

SINKING-FUND, 

may be established by a town . 105, 108 

for debts incurred on account of railroads 112 

payments on to be assessed by assessors 598 

SINKING-FUND COMMISSIONERS, 

shall be appointed 106 

town treasurer not eligible as 106 

shall choose a treasurer 106 

duties of * 107 

expenses of, to be paid by town 107 

SKATING RINKS, 

selectmen may license and regulate 476 

SLAUGHTER-HOUSES, 

not to be used without consent of selectmen . . . .1151 
SMALL-POX, 

boards of health to notify state board of case? of . 1144, 1145 



INDEX. 503 

SNOW AND ICE, 

removal of from roofs and sidewalks 18, 51, 52 

soldiers, 

burial of deceased 431 

expense of burial of, limited, etc 432 

SPECIAL COMMISSIONERS, 

election and terms of office of 302 

SPENDTHRIFTS, 

appointment of guardians of > 428 

STABLES, 

in maritime towns 452 

penalty for unauthorized erection or use of 453 

STATE AID, 

towns may vote to raise money for 128 

classes of , 128 

restrictions as to wife or widow ,129 

classification of beneficiaries under special acts .... 130 

limit of amounts to be paid 131 

assignments of, not valid 132 

is not subject to trustee process 132 

back state aid not to be paid , . . . 132 

not to be paid when necessity arises from vicious, etc., 

habits 132 

shall not be paid to any one convicted of a criminal of- 
fence " ... 132 

application for, shall be in writing under oath . . . . 133 

original papers to be filed with commissioners . . . . 133 

returns to be made to auditor by selectmen 134 

sums paid to be reimbursed to town by Commonwealth . 134 

provisions to be in force until January 1, 1895 . . . 135 
towns may relieve soldiers and sailors not able to support 

their families 136 

beneficiary not required to receive relief in almshouse . 136 

STATE OFFICERS, 

provisions as to failures to elect 306 

STATE REPRESENTATIVES, 

determination of choice of 284-288 

form of certificate of election of 287 

STAVES AND HOOPS, 

• cullers of 62 and note 



504 INDEX. 

STEAMBOATS, 

on inland waters to be licensed 474 

form, etc., of licenses of , . 475 

STEAM ENGINES, FURNACES, AND BOILERS, 

not to be used without license 454, 457 

public notice of applications for licenses for 455 

selectmen may regulate 456 

when nuisances, etc , 458 

may be examined, and use forbidden as nuisances . 459, 460 

STRAW, 

inspectors of 425, and note 

STRAY BEASTS, 

form of appointment of persons to appraise . . . . p. 154 

(See Lost Goods, Stray Beasts, and Unclaimed Property.) 

STREET RAILWAYS, 

construction and use of tracks of 842-847 

location of tracks of, may be extended in certain cases 

843, 844 
may be revoked in certain cases 845 
tracks of, to be taken up if use is voluntarily discon- 
tinued 846 

temporary discontinuance of 847, 850 

regulations concerning, by selectmen .... 848, 849, 853 
streets to be kept in repair and guards maintained on 

bridges by 851,852 

motive power of 854 

rates of fare of, may be regulated . 855 

STREETS, 

fast driving in, regulated 56 

SUPERINTENDENTS OF STREETS, 

selectmen may appoint in certain towns ...... 315 

duties of 316 

SUPERVISORS OF ELECTION, 

appointment, powers, and duties of 227 

SUPERVISORS OF REGISTRATION, 

powers and duties of 187 

SURVEYORS OF HIGHWAYS, 

one or more elected at annual town meeting .... 307 

penalty on, for refusing to serve 773 

for neglect of duty 774 



INDEX. 505 

SURVEYORS OF HIGHWAYS — continued. 

in certain cases to be liable to towns for deficiencies in 

ways 775 

selectmen shall assign limits to 777 

power of, when sum voted is deficient or not paid . . 778 
may repair at town's expense in certain cases . . 778, 779 

shall render an account to selectmen . , 781 

pay over surplus to town treasurer 782 

cause trees and bushes which obstruct ways to be 

trimmed 783 

remove obstructions from ways 783 

snow to be removed from ways by 783 

shall not remove certain fences 784 

shall not turn water-courses so as to incommode house- 
holder 785 

may contract for repairing ways .786 

TABLE OF AGGREGATES, 

form of . 617 

assessors to fill up, and in certain years deposit copy in 

secretary's office 619, 620 

TAXATION, 

valuatiou of property subject to, to be made .... 611 

persons subject to a poll tax 656 

all property not expressly exempted, is subject to . . . 657 
real estate for the purposes of, to consist of, etc. . . . 658 

what personal estate is subject to 659 

certain persons and property exempted from . . 660-664 
where polls and property shall be assessed . . . 665-679 
person to be taxed where he designates his place of resi- 
dence to be . 666 

of real estate ; where 667 

who to be deemed owners of mortgages for purposes of . 670 
keepers of taverns, etc., to give names of persons subject 

to 679 

of bank stock . '. 680-689 

TAXES, 

temporary loans in anticipation of 101, 102 

interest on debts to be raised by 105 

assessment of 591-655 

warrants for state 594 



506 INDEX. 

TAXES — continued. 

by what rules assessed 595 

rate of, in towns containing national banks 596 

amount of, to be assessed , . 597 

sinking fund assessed in same manner as other . . -. 5sJ8 
additional, assessed to pay interest on debts for building 

railroad 599 

rules for assessing, for assessors p. 203 

list of property subject to, to be brought in 601 

assessment of, upon mortgaged real estate . . . 602, 603 
state, county, and town, may be included in one assess- 
ment 612 

for state and county, poll tax of not more than $1 to be 

assessed 613 

five per cent as overlay may be assessed 614 

blank books for use in assessment of, to be furnished by 

secretary to assessors 617 

discount on may be allowed in certain cases .... 627 

when discount allowed on, rates to be posted up . . . 628 

interest to be added to, in certain cases 629 

abatement of 630-639 

assessment of, omitted in certain cases 640 

re-assessment of 641, 642 

invalid, except poll taxes, may be re-assessed . . . . 641 

apportionment of, on real estate subsequently divided 643, 644 

TELEGRAPH COMPANIES, 

may construct lines on highways which do not incom- 
mode public 856 

selectmen to specify location of posts for 857 

regulations for 859,861 

selectmen may empower citizens to establish .... 860 

TELEGRAPH LINES, 

towns may construct for their own use * 48 

TELLERS, 

to be appointed at elections by presiding officers . . . 224 

are ineligible if they are candidates at the election . . 224 

shall be sworn 224 

may be appointed at town meetings 350 

at town meetings to be sworn by moderator . . . . 351 

THEATRICAL EXHIBITIONS, 

to be licensed 471 



INDEX. 507 

TOMBS, 

may be closed by orders of boards of health . . 1163-1166 

TOWN CLERKS, 

Election and Appointment of. 

elected at annual town meeting 307 

pro-tempore, when chosen 358 

assistant, may be appointed 359 

when selectmen may appoiut 359 

Duties of in General. 

shall record all votes 356 

administer oaths, and make record thereof . . . 357 
transmit vote of town to subscribe for railroad 

stock 360 

return names of chief of police or police officers to 

prison commissioners ......... 361,362 

record mortgages of personal property, notices to 
foreclose, and notices of liens on ships . . . 363 

fees of, for recording 363 

notices of intention of marriage to be entered with , . 364 
shall give certificate to parties entering intention of 

marriage 365 

shall not issue certificate of marriage to minor without 

consent of parents 366 

may require affidavit of age of persons applying for mar- 
riage certificate 367 

certificate of marriage outside state to be entered with . 368 
fees of, for entering certificates of births, marriages, and 

deaths 369 

fees of, for copies of town records, documents, etc. . . 370 
records of attachment of bulky articles to be entered with 

371,372 

fees of, for recording attachments 372 , 

shall make return to secretary of acceptance of act by 

town 373 

form of warrant of, to constable, notifying town officers 

to take oath of office p. 142 

duties of, as to town records 374-385 

registry and returns of births, marriages, and deaths by 

386-400 

dudes of, as to dogs 401-410 

as to lost goods, stray beasts, and unclaimed prop- 
erty 411-414 



508 INDEX. 

TOWN CLERKS— continued. 

shall certify records of certain churches, etc. «... 385 

sign and record certain licenses 467 

receive acceptance of appointment of fire wards . . 490 
deliver to constable copy of order of selectmen to 

abate a nuisance . 557 

duties of, as regards the drawing of jurors 572 

shall record laying out and alteration of ways .... 809 

deliver school registers to committee 921 

duties of, with respect to reports of board of education . 932 
shall note time when filed, on bonds of constables . .1060 

abatements of nuisances to be recorded by «... . 1099 

assignments by fence viewers to be recorded with . . 1184 
shall record measurements of great ponds and ponds 

wholly within towns 1251, 1252 

form for appointment of persons by, to determine dam- 
ages done by beasts impounded p. 434 

In Elections. 

shall send to registrars names of deceased residents . . 157 
be members of boards of registrars of voters 158, 159 

be clerk of board of registrars of voters .... 164 
present report of selectmen concerning proposed 

voting precincts at town meeting ..... 211 
send notice to secretary of establishment or discon- 
tinuance of voting precincts 215 

provide a safe place for keeping ballot boxes . . 233 

provide a seal for voting precincts 235 

send voting apparatus to election officers .... 236 

in certain towns shall furnish ballots 237 

shall keep a record of number of ballots furnished . . 242 

furnish instructions to voters 245 

post up copies of ballots and names of candidates 

in certain towns * 247 

receipt for ballots sent them by secretary . . . 248 
in certain towns shall arrange ballots in packages, and 

seal them 249 

shall send ballots to polling places on day of election . . 250 

in case ballots are destroyed, etc., shall prepare others . 251 
shall deliver ballots to ballot clerks, and shall preserve 

their receipts 255 

make a record of the ballot-box register .... 274 



INDEX. 509 

TOWN CLERKS — continued. 

shall make public announcement of the result of the vote 274 
enter in the town records the records of the voting 

o 

precincts 274 

in certain cases may make a copy of voting list . . . 277 
shall destroy ballots which have been cast or cancelled, 

and make an entry accordingly 278 

send voting lists to registrars after they have been 

used 278 

examine and attest copies of records of votes . . 280 
send to secretary and county commissioners copies 
of records of votes for national, state, and county 

offices 281 

send another copy of record of votes, if first was not 

properly sealed, etc 282, 283 

duties of, in regard to certifying election of state repre- 
sentative ... 285-288 

shall certify to secretary number of names of voters 

checked on voting list 288 

duties of in regard to recounts of votes .... 290-294 
In Town Meetings. 

shall preside at meetings during election of moderator . 344 
when presiding at town meetings, may appoint tellers . 350 
shall record taking of oath by tellers at town meetings . 35 1 
TOWN HALL, 

towns may take land for building 45 

damages, how determined and paid 46 

land so taken to revert to owner under certain circum- 
stances 47 

TOWN LINES, 

perambulation of 5, 417-420 

TOWN MEETINGS, 

times and places of holding 339 

to be held in [ursuance of a warrant 340 

if a majority of selectmen vacate office, others may 

call 341 

justices of peace may call, in certain event . . . . . 342 

no person to speak in, without permission of moderator . 347 

penalty for disorderly conduct in 348 

for elections, how called 253 

"warrants and notices for, for elections 254 



510 INDEX. 

TOWN MEETINGS — continued. 

jurors may be drawn at 574 

rules for conducting pp. 115-121 

TOWN OFFICERS, 

election of 307-329 

to be chosen annually except as otherwise provided . . 307 

certain, shall be elected by ballot 323 

provisions for tilling vacancies in 330-336 

shall be sworn before entering upon their duties . 325, 326 

certain exemptions from serving as 327 

must demand under oath their predecessors' papers . . 329 

TOWN RECORDS, 

kind of paper to be used for . 374 

to be bound, and papers, etc., filed , 375 

fire-proof safes to be provided for 376 

of grants of land and of births, marriages, and deaths may 

be copied 377 

of town from which another is set off may be copied . 378 

indexes of, shall be kept 379 

when worn out, shall be copied 380 

copies of, to have same force as original 381 

not to be removed except in certain cases 382 

to be open to the public 383 

town clerks to have custody of ancient, etc. ..... 384 

to contain perambulation proceedings 5 

fees of town clerks for copies of, etc 370 

TOWNS, 

nature of . . . 1, 2 

powers and duties of in general ........ 3-62 

libraries 63-73 

power of to make gas and electricity . 74-90 

may subscribe for stock in railroads 91-95 

indebtedness of 96-117 

cemeteries and burials in 118-125 

may care for forests and build parks 126, 127 

raise money to pay state aid 128-136 

abuse of powers by 137 

inspection of buildings in ........ " . . 138-141 

may keep a watch P- 387, note 



INDEX. 511 

TOWN TREASURERS, 

elected at annual town meeting 307 

form of bond to be given by p. 380 

may be collectors of taxes 307 

shall act at times as treasurer of library trustees ... 70 

receive receipts from sale of gas and electricity . 78 

not eligible as commissioner of sinking fund .... 106 

may be treasurer of commissioners of sinking fund . . 106 

shall hold funds deposited for care of private burial lots 122 

may pay state aid under direction of selectmen . . . . 128 

pro-tempore, may be appointed in certain cases . . . 333 
in case of failure to give bonds, selectmen may declare 

office vacant 333 

shall keep separate account of moneys received for dog 

licenses 408 

receive fees for licenses to hawkers and pedlers . 488 
pay to members of fire departments amounts due 

them 513 

receive money collected from fire districts . . . 542 

may issue his warrants when appointed collector . . . 1034 
if requested by collector, shall withhold money payable to 

a person whose taxes are unpaid 1035 

shall give such bonds as selectmen may require . . . 1049 

receive pay over, and account for all town money . 1049 
may prosecute suits on bonds and notes, and for all fines 

and forfeitures 1050 

shall prosecute for trespasses made upon buildings be- 
longing to the town 1051 

may be collector of taxes, and may appoint deputies . .1052 
when collector, may issue warrants to distrain for payment 

of taxes 1053 

shall render annual accounts to the town 1054 

compensation of 1054 

may require persons furnishing supplies to town to make 

certain affidavits 1055 

shall keep records of sums received for licenses of hawk- 
ers and pedlers 1056 

provide suitable places for keeping the standard 

weights and measures .1221 

have the standard weights and measures adjusted at 

certain periods 1222 



512 INDEX. 

TOWN TREASURERS — continued. 

in certain cases shall procure additional seals, weights, 

and measures 1224 

payment to, by riparian owners on ponds for fishery 
rights 1253 

TOWN WAY, 

shall not be laid out over burial place .... 123,124 

TREASURER, 

of board of public library trustees 70 

TROTT1NG-PARKS. {See Race-Grounds.) 

TRUANT CHILDREN, 

towns to make arrangements concerning 949 

truant officers to be appointed by school committee . . 950 
minors convicted of being, to be committed to certain 

institutions 952 

schools for 953-955 

TRUANT OFFICERS, 

school committee shall appoint 950 

may visit factories, etc 951 

TRUSTEE PROCESS, 

state aid not subject to 132 

TRUSTEES OF PUBLIC LIBRARY, 

to be elected by certain towns 66 

election of 67 

vacancies in board of, how supplied 68 

powers and duties of 69 

shall elect a treasurer 70 

shall make annual report of receipts, expenditures, etc. . 71 
shall receive money for books from library commissioners 73 

UNCLAIMED PROPERTY. {See Lost Goods, Stray Beasts, 

and Unclaimed Property.) 
UNLAWFUL ASSEMBLIES, 

how suppressed 554 

towns to pay part value of property destroyed by . 555, 556 

VACCINATION, 

selectmen shall enforce . 1116,1117 

certain persons shall be vaccinated 1118 

towns shall provide means for 1117 

ma} 7- make further provisions for 1119 



INDEX. 513 

VALUATION LISTS, 

residents, etc., to have free access to 615 

to exhibit valuation, etc., of residents and non-residents 616 

how blanks in, shall be filled 618 

certain exempted property to be entered on .... 621 

to be sworn to by assessors ; form of oath ..... 622 

form of . p. 209 

VINEGAR, 

inspectors of . 425 and note 

VOTERS, 

male, qualifications of 147 

female, qualifications of 148 

shall vote only in precinct where place of residence was 

on May 1 149 

registrars of 158-165 

registration of 166-187 

number of, allowed inside of guard rail, and time allowed 

for depositing ballots 259 

information to .... , 245-247 

manner of voting of, and marking of ballots by . 263-265 

may be assisted in certain cases 266 

in certain cases may have additional ballots .... 268 
shall fold and deposit ballots after marking them . 269, 270 
as soon as they have voted, shall leave space enclosed by 

guard rail 271 

proceedings in case of challenging of vote of .... 272 

VOTES, 

counting of 273-278 

no record of, to be rejected, if number of votes cast is 
certain 279 

original and additional records of, to be a part of the re- 
cords of elections 280 

records of, for national, state, and county offices to be 
transmitted to secretary and county commissioners , 281 

additional copies of records of votes cast to be sent in cer- 
tain cases 282, 283 

records of, for state representative to be examined by 
selectmen in certain towns, by town clerks in others 

284, 285 

selectmen may make regulations in regard to counting . 289 
33 



514 INDEX. 

VOTES — continued. 

provisions respecting recounts of 290-294 

at town meetings clerk shall record ....... 356 

VOTING LISTS, 

preparation, contents, etc 188-195 

copies of, to be posted 190 

addition of new names to 191 

errors in 192 

copies of, to be furnished for caucuses 195 

to be enclosed in envelope and sealed after having been 

used 276 

sent to registrars, after having been used . . . 278 

shall be used in checking names of voters 257 

form of p. 55 

VOTING PLACES, 

selectmen shall cause to be prepared in a convenient 

place 228 

a building where intoxicating liquor has been recently- 
sold is not to be used for 228 

printed descriptions of, to be posted up 228 

marking-shelves and a guard rail to be placed in . . . 229 

VOTING PRECINCTS, 

selectmen may divide town into, in certain cases . . . 211 

may be changed 212 

map of, to be made by selectmen 213 

may be discontinued 214 

town clerk to give notice in writing of establishment or 

discontinuance of, to secretary . . . . . . . . 215 

to be furnished with seals by the town clerk .... 235 

WARRANT, 

town meetings to be called in pursuance of a .... 340 

requisites of , 340 

two or more distinct town meetings may be called by the 

same 340 

form of, for calling annual town meeting .... p. 161 
for calling town meeting to vote for governor, 

etc p. 162 

for calling town meeting to vote for state repre- 
sentative p. 162 

for calling town meeting to vote for congressional 
representative p. 162 



INDEX. 515 

WARRANT, ASSESSOR'S, 

contents and form of 625 

if lost, new one may issue 626 

form of . p. 217 

WATCH, 

towns may keep m p. 387, note 

WATER, 

towns may supply 30 

issue bonds therefor 31, 32 

contract for purity of 35 

WATER SUPPLY, 

towns may take measures to preserve ...... 126 

not to be polluted . .1155,1156,1158,1159 

injunction may be granted by selectmen against pollut- 
ing 1157 

bathing in, and driving horse on ice of pond used for, 

prohibited 1160-1162 

WAYS, 

no railroad to be laid in public, without consent of 

selectmen 479 

fences, etc., on town or private, how removed .... 792 
laying out and discontinuance of town and private 798-813 

footways 814 

laying out of, to be void against owner of land taken un- 
less, etc 815 

dedication of 816,817 

if location of, is uncertain, selectmen, etc., to ascertain 

it . .818 

erection of monuments in 819 

taking of earth or gravel for construction or repair of . 820 
damages from laying out and discontinuing ways ; how 

determined and paid • . . , 801,802 

under certain conditions may be laid out over a railroad 8C8 
(See Highways and Town Ways.) 
WEIGHERS, 

who to be deemed public 1240 

shall weigh according to certain rules 1239, 1240 

of boilers and heavy machinery may be appointed . . 1242 
WEIGHTS AND MEASURES, 

what to be standards 1218 

towns which have not received sets of standard, shall 
make application for them . . 1219 



516 INDEX. 

WEIGHTS AND MEASURES — continued 

certain towns shall keep certain additional 1220 

town treasurers shall provide suitable places for keeping 1221 

to be sealed at certain periods . , 1222 

persons using may have them tested 1229 

if they cannot be sealed, may be marked with a stencil . 1230 
in certain cases may be seized to be used as evidence . 1232 
shall be stamped in a certain manner if they do not con- 
form to the standard 1234 

penalty for using false 1235 

vibrating steel-yards may be used 1238 

provisions for, for salt and grain 1241 

for coal 1248, 1249 

WOOD AND BARK, 

measures of 62 

WORKHOUSES AND ALMSHOUSES, 

towns may provide ; persons who may be committed 

thereto 750 

not to be erected in other place without consent . . . 751 

directors of, and their duties 752, 753 

towns may jointly provide 754 

joint board of directors of, and their powers and duties 

755-760 

compensation of master to be paid by persons interested 761 

towns not to send more than their proportion to . . . 762 
materials for employment of persons committed to, to be 

furnished by each place 763 

duties of masters of 764 

as to controversies between master and overseers . . . 765 

profits of, how appropriated 766 

how persons may be discharged from 767 

persons committed to, to be kept employed . . . . . 768 

as to foreigners committed to .......... 769 

discontinuance of 770 

previous provisions concerning 771 



c_ 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



021 051 776 5 



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